Housing Consumer Protection Bill: Negotiating Mandate

Meeting report

Opening Remarks

The Chairperson stated that the agenda was a continuation of the meeting on the negotiating mandate for the Housing Consumer Protection Bill held on Friday 28 July 2023 when various concerns were highlighted. The Committee had requested Adv Romeo Maasdorp, Western Cape Parliamentary Legal Advisor, and officials to scrutinise the draft report for the negotiating mandate as per those issues highlighted. Thereafter a copy of the document was sent to each Member in preparation for the meeting.

The Chairperson called for comments from the Members on the amended report.

Mr P Marran (ANC) stated that he had left the previous meeting early but he had sent a WhatsApp message to the Procedural Officer saying that he was in support of the Bill and that his view should be captured. However, he now saw that all Members of the Committee supported the Bill. Noting that there were several proposed amendments to the Bill in the report, he asked whether the Committee would support the Bill even if those amendments did not succeed in the NCOP.

The Chairperson stated that there were some clauses that the Committee had raised as a way of engaging with the National Department of Human Settlements. Adv Maasdorp had advised that some of the issues raised were covered in the Bill itself and they had been removed as points of concern. The conditions of the appointment of the Chief Executive Officer and the Chief Financial Officer to the National Home Building Regulatory Council remained a concern. The Western Cape Negotiating Mandate would indicate that it was a matter that the province wished to have added to the Bill. The National Council of Provinces would look at it and either the Members would agree with it, or they would vote on it to see if it were something that other provinces agreed was important. That point would show that the Western Cape had looked at the Bill. Regardless of the decisions on proposed Amendments, the Western Cape supported the Bill, even in its present form.

Mr Marran stated that he supported the Bill.

Briefing on the Report of the Standing Committee on Infrastructure on the Housing Consumer Protection Bill

Ms Shumeeze Jones, Procedural Officer, stated that after the meeting, she and the other officials had met with Adv Maasdorp and the State Law Advisor, Ms Shehnaz Seria, Department of the Premier: Corporate Legal Services (Legislation), Western Cape Government.

The following clauses in the Bill were discussed:

Clause 16, on the conditions of appointment of the Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer was a concern, and had been re-worded in the mandate, as indicated in clause 16.1.

Clause 12, regarding the remuneration for the board, was a concern. Remuneration should be determined in consultation with the Minister of Human Settlements and the Minister of Finance to ensure that there was uniformity across all the boards.

Clause 13, delegation and assignment of functions by the board of the National Home Building Regulatory Council, had been an issue for Members in respect of the agreements on remuneration. Clauses 12 and 13 had been aligned.

Clause 14 related to the functions the Council and cited the prescribed requirements for the approval of certain bodies and the listing of competent persons. It contained the functions of the Council to ensure that the correct persons were appointed to the Council board.

Clause 78 presented penalty provisions: administrative penalties had been raised several times, particularly regarding the penalties a person was liable to pay for not conforming.

Clauses 55 to 58: Alternate resolutions. The Committee had expressed concern that the term “adjudicate” could be problematic.

Clause 2(2)(a) (Application of the Act) dealt with a kitchen and bathroom. Members had an issue with that paragraph but Adv Maasdorp pointed out that the matter was addressed in the subsequent clauses.

General concerns

Procedural Concerns: the State Law Advisor raised the matter of public participation in the Bill at the level of the National Council of Provinces as there was no evidence to indicate whether there had been public participation at that level or not. Following general discussion, it was decided to note the concern around the lack of communication about public participation at the NCOP level under "Procedural Concerns".

Technical concerns: “Technical Standards” and “technical standards” were both used in the Bill. The recommendation was to capitalise the words as the term was a reference to a technical requirement.

General: on the advice of Adv Maasdorp, the Committee noted that the Bill contained drafting, grammatical and typographical errors which should be corrected using generally accepted Commonwealth legislative drafting practices. The support of a language practitioner familiar with the practices should be enlisted.

The Chairperson agreed that the document be divided into substantive matters and procedural matters.

The Chairperson confirmed that all Members were satisfied with the final document and called for the adoption of the negotiating mandate. Correcting the date on the document, the Chairperson read the entire Report of the Standing Committee on Infrastructure on the Housing Consumer Protection Bill [B10B-2021] for record purposes.

The Chairperson asked if there were support for the Report.

Resolution

The Committee adopted the Report of the Standing Committee on Infrastructure on the Housing Consumer Protection Bill [B10B-2021] unanimously and with no further amendments.

Concluding remarks

The Report on the Bill being the sole business on the agenda, the Chairperson concluded the meeting.

The meeting was adjourned.