Local Government Laws Amendment Bill [B28D-2007]: deliberations on NCOP amendments

Meeting report

The Committee went through the finalised version of the proposed amendments:

Clause 2
The Chairperson noted that it was unnecessary to retain both paragraphs that referred to the Minister of Finance in clauses 2 and 9. He said that unnecessary cross-referring led to complexity and that he would engage with the State Law Advisor on the necessity of the repetition.

In addition, he said that the Demarcation Amendment Act should stay in clause 2.

Mr S Mshudulu  (ANC) said that two different Acts could not be placed under one heading and that the Chairperson was correct in insisting on the Demarcation Amendment Act being under chapter 1.

Mr W Doman (DA) agreed with the Chairperson and Mr Mshudulu and said that there was no valid ground for the repetition.

Clause 6
The amendment was agreed to by the Committee.

New clause
A new clause was added dealing with the term of office of ward committee members. Their term of office would now correspond with section 24 of the Municipal Structures Act.

Clause 9
The Committee rejected clause 9(b) as it was a repetition of clause 2(b).

However, Mr Doman noted that there might be a reason why there had been a repetition and that the State Law Advisor would have to be consulted.

The Chairperson said that he would contact the Department and the State Law Advisor to ascertain the significance of the repetition, but that it would have no effect on the Bill in its totality.

Clause 13
This was agreed to by the Committee.

Clause 17
This clause would now read “The MEC must table a report detailing the outcome of the investigation in the relevant provincial legislature within 90 days… “ after the initial paragraph had been omitted.

Clause 19
This was agreed to by the Committee.

Clause 21
This was agreed to by the Committee.

Mr Doman asked whether the Chairperson would convene another meeting to discuss the outcome of the consultation with the Department and the State Law Advisor.

The Chairperson replied that they would have to finalise the Bill the following week - it would take only five minutes.

Meeting adjourned.