Sectional Titles Amendment Bill: Committee proposed amendments

Meeting report

Opening Remarks

A moment of silence was reserved for the late Mr K Maphatsoe (ANC).

The Chairperson said that the purpose of the meeting was for the Committee to consider the amendments to the Sectional Titles Amendment Bill (A-List) and that the proceedings will be led by the parliamentary legal advisor. Property titles and land are important to what defines heritage and may be at the core of heritage. The engagement with colonial occupation and apartheid discrimination is best symbolised by the struggle for land, property and title. The painful memories, legacy and trauma of the South African Native Land Act of 1913 and the Group Areas Act of 1950 have contributed to the identity of South Africans and defines heritage. The process of redefining heritage, the memory and the journey that has been experienced over the past 27 years will define what will be left for prosperity as a common heritage. His Excellency, Mr Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, realised the power of defining and redefining what constitutes heritage.

The Chairperson said that there is a responsibility to shape the present to ensure that there is a contribution to nation-building, national reconciliation and social cohesion as the foundation for a collective heritage. This Heritage Month should be defined by what has been inherited as land, title and property as it is defined by the Bill to advance a heritage that truly celebrates that South Africa belongs to all who live in it. Good law-making is about the ability to craft effective solutions and to deal with a provision of the law that is a consequence of the amendments that were made by the Committee.

The Committee needs to look at the A-List of the Sectional Titles Amendment Bill with the guidance of the legal advisor.

The Chairperson bid farewell to a Committee Member who had now been appointed as a Whip of the Portfolio Committee on Higher Education and wished her well in her new appointment.

Clause-by-clause reading of the proposed Committee amendments (A-List) to the Sectional Titles Amendment Bill [B31-2020]

Ms Sueanne Isaac, Legal Adviser: Parliament of South Africa, said that in the previous meeting, the Committee had agreed to various amendments which were captured in the A-List. She read out the proposed amendments as captured.

Clause 1 Sectional Titles Schemes Management Act

The Committee suggested the inclusion of 2011 in closed brackets.

Clause 3

The Committee rejected clause 3.

Clause 16

The Committee amended clause 16.

Clause 18

The Committee rejected clause 18.

The Committee amended the long title of the Bill.

The Chairperson said that the Committee will have to request permission from the National Assembly to amend the other sections of the Bill.

He asked the Committee to now adopt the Bill in its entirety.  

Adoption of the Sectional Titles Amendment Bill

The Committee adopted the A-List version of the Bill.  

The secretariat was requested to write to the National Assembly to effect the amendments.

Interim report of the Portfolio Committee on Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development on the Sectional Titles Amendment Bill [B31 – 2020] (National Assembly– sec 76)

The report was adopted.

Meeting Minutes

The Committee considered and adopted its minutes of 17 and 24 August 2021.

Committee programme

The Chairperson informed Members of changes to the Committee programme – next week, 7 September 2021, the Committee would receive a briefing from the Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development on the annual report of the Communal Property Association (CPA) for the 2019/2020 financial year which will include a detailed provincial breakdown of CPAs and their status quo as requested by the Committee during deliberations in February 2021.

Meeting adjourned.