Report of the Portfolio Committee on Women, Children and People with Disabilities on Women Empowerment and Gender Equality Bill [B50-2013] dated 26 February 2014

The Portfolio Committee on Women, Children and People with Disabilities, having considered the subject of the Women Empowerment and Gender Equality Bill (National Assembly –section 76 [B50-2013], referred to it and classified by the Joint Tagging Mechanism as a section 76 Bill), presents a redrafted Bill [B 50B-2013].

The Committee reports the Bill further as follows:

1. The Committee published a notice in the press on 1 December 2013, inviting the public to make submissions on the Bill by no later than 20 December 2013. The Committee received 41 submissions from the civil society organisations and held public hearings on 29 & 30 January 2014. 23 organisations made an oral presentation to the Committee on 29 & 30 January 2014.

2. The Committee received responses to the submissions from the Department of Women, Children and People with Disabilities on 5 February 2014 and deliberated on 18, 19 & 25 February 2014.

3. The Committee took heed of the input received and the Bill was amended accordingly. The amendments pertained to definitions, applications and objects of the bill, social development, equal representation and empowerment, governance, review and enforcement, code of good conduct, framework and regulations, miscellaneous and Schedule 1 & 2.

4. The Democratic Alliance raised the following concerns and objections during the deliberations and voted against the Bill:

(i) That the Women Empowerment and Gender Equality Bill duplicates the constitutional mandate of the Commission for Gender Equality and certain provisions contained in the other pieces of legislation namely; the Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act (No. 4 of 2000), the Employment Equity Act (No. 55 of 1998), the Basic Conditions of Employment Equity Act (No. 75 of 1997) and the Broad Based Black Economic Empowerment Act (No. 53 of 2003);

(ii) That the Bill does not adequately address the prejudice and discrimination faced by Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender and Intersex persons;

(iii) That the 50 percent requirement contained in the Bill amounts to a top-down manipulation to achieve “equality” and does not address the root causes of inequality in South Africa;

(iv) That the Bill is not realistically implementable given the Department’s proven capacity constraints and inability to meet its own targets;

(v) The discretion afforded to the Minister to designate bodies and to recommend which steps should be taken, is still too wide;

(vi) That the sanctions in the Bill are too harsh and a Bill of this nature should rather incentivise behaviour in order to facilitate compliance.

(vii) That the Department should undertake a comprehensive audit of existing legislation to identify gaps in laws that are not properly implemented and to make findings on what is required to implement them sufficiently.

The Committee accordingly presents a redraft of the Bill [B50B-2013] for consideration by the National Assembly.

Report to be considered.