Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development on Strategic Plan & Budget Vote: postponement: briefing

SECURITY AND CONSTITUTIONAL AFFAIRS SELECT COMMITTEE
23 May 2007
MINISTER OF JUSTICE AND CONSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENT ON STRATEGIC PLAN AND BUDGET VOTE: POSTPONEMENT: BRIEFING

Chairperson:  Kgoshi L Mokoena (ANC, Limpopo)

Documents handed out:
None

SUMMARY
The Minister and Deputy Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development were unable to attend the meeting due to Cabinet commitments. The Committee expressed its displeasure at this type of inconvenience. In other business, the Commttee’s upcoming study trips to Algerian and France were discussed.

MINUTES
The Chair announced that both the Minister and Deputy Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development have offered their apologies and would not be attending the meeting. Whilst the apologies were accepted, this type of arrangement was not acceptable.

Mr J le Roux (DA, Eastern Cape) and Dr F van Heerden (FFP, Free State) agreed and stated that the Committee needed to take a stronger stance on that type of behaviour. 

Mr Z Ntuli (ANC, KZN) stated that Wednesdays were put aside for Cabinet meetings and proposed that a possible way around the problem would be for this Committee to meet in the evenings after the Cabinet meetings.

Mr A Moseki (ANC, North West) agreed with the suggestion.  He was particularly concerned with meetings running late on a Friday which in turn affected Members’ connecting flights, and also took away from family and social commitments.

Ms F Nyanda (ANC, Mpumalanga) stated that Monday meetings were also a problem as Monday was meant to be committed to constituency work, and it was important that the Committee’s responsibilities to their committees were not neglected. 

The Committee came to an agreement that the meetings for the coming Friday and the next two Mondays would have to stand as they were, but beyond that evening meetings should be considered.

Dr van Heerden suggested that Committee meetings were often very long, which he attributed to Members’ talking around the point. He proposed that Members needed to discipline themselves more.

Mr N Mack (ANC, Western Cape), the Chair and Mr Moseki responded that it was necessary for Members to fully explain themselves when posing questions, so as not to compromise on the quality of the meetings.

Other Committee business
The Chair asked the Committee for their opinions on the upcoming trip to Algeria and France, scheduled for 18 to 21 June.

He informed the Committee that the Department of Foreign Affairs had advised the Committee not to go to Algeria due to civil unrest in that area.

Dr Van Heerden pledged to look into the offerings of other African countries as an alternative.

The meeting was adjourned.