Refugees Amendment Bill: adoption

Meeting report

The motion, read out by the Committee Secretary, to vote on the Amendment Bill was agreed to by all Members.

Adv Deon Erasmus, Chief Director: Legal Services, Department of Home Affairs (DHA), guided the Committee (clause-by-clause) through all the proposed changes to the Amendment Bill. The amendments were both consequential and substantive in nature.

The Committee accepted most of the amendments without dissent. As a result, Members adopted clauses 1, 2, 4, 8, 10, 11, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 19, 21, 23, 24, 25, 28, 29, 31 and 33 with amendments. (See Document: Portfolio Committee Amendments on Refugee Amendment Bill)

Clause 11
The Committee preferred the retention of the words “is legally qualified” and rejected the suggestion supplied by the Department.

Adv Yolande Van Aswegen, Legal Administration Officer: Drafting, DHA, introduced an amendment to section 8C(2). She proposed that the new clause read as follows: “An appeal contemplated in subsection 1(a) must be determined by any such members of the Refugee Appeals Authority (RAA) as the chairperson may deem necessary; provided that one such member is legally qualified”. She reasoned that such a formulation made it possible for the RAA chairperson not to be present at each appeal.

Ms Bongiwe Lufundo, Principal State Law Advisor: Office of the Chief State Law Advisor, stated that she was satisfied with the new formulation. However, she noted that in terms of section 8B only the chairperson needed to be legally qualified. She wondered whether provision could be made in section 8B for at least one other member of the RAA to also be legally qualified.

The Chairperson stated that the Committee did not want a situation where all members of the RAA had to be legally qualified.

After hearing several alternative formulations, the Committee settled on the current amendment to section 8B(b): “such number of other members as the Minister may determine, having regard to the likely volume of work to be performed by the Refugee Appeals Authority; provided that at least one of these members is legally qualified.”

Clause 25
The Committee had to decide whether to provide refugees with identity documents that were in a similar colour to that of citizens.

Adv Erasmus stated that the Department had drafted an amendment for this, which read: A refugee must, upon application, be issued with the prescribed identity document within a reasonable time.

Members were not convinced that the amendment captured their actual intention.

The Chairperson commented that the issuing of different colour documents to refugees was problematic because it reinforced the idea that they were different and excluded. For that reason, he believed that refugees should be given the same colour identity document that citizens have.

Mr P Mathebe (ANC) supported the position of the Chairperson on this matter.

Adv Busisiwe Mkhwebane-Tshela, Director: Refugee Affairs, DHA, confirmed that there was no existing legislation, which provided that refugees should be allocated with a differently coloured identity document.

Adv Erasmus suggested that for purposes of this Act, “identity document” could be defined in clause 1 of the Amendment Bill.

The State Law Advisor and the Department officials conferred for 10 minutes to craft an amendment to this clause.

Adv Erasmus indicated that section 3 of the Identification Act provided that an identity document must be issued to a person who is lawfully and permanently in the country. He reckoned that a refugee could not be considered to be permanently-based in the country. As a result, he argued that the Identification Act was excluded and that any reference to it was problematic. Consequently, he revised his earlier amendment and instead proposed the following clause: “A refugee must, upon application in the prescribed manner and on a prescribed form, be issued with an identity card or document similar to a South African identity card or document”. He concluded that this clause could not currently be linked to the Identification Act.

Members accepted this formulation and assented to the clause.

No corrections were presented for the following clauses: 3, 5, 6, 7, 9, 12, 18; 20 22, 23, 26 and 27 and 32. As a result, Members adopted each clause without amendment.

Adoption of Bill
The Committee Secretary read out the formal Motion of Desirability, which the Committee agreed to. The Committee voted unanimously in favour of the Bill, with amendments.

The Chairperson thanked all those that contributed during the processing of the Bill. He was confident that the Bill would address some of the current challenges that the country faced regarding refugees and asylum seekers. He appealed to the Department to fast track the Regulations on the Bill.

The meeting was adjourned.