By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Parliament is to urgently ask the Constitutional Court for an extension of the December 10 deadline for conclusion of the Electoral Amendment Bill to allow further public consultation on the substantial amendments made by the National Council of Provinces (NCOP).
The court initially gave Parliament two years to do so, back in June 2020.
It’s already been granted one six-month extension to that date, but now says it again needs more time to consult the public on two material changes proposed by the National Council of Provinces (NCOP).
After it became apparent that Parliament was not going to meet the June deadline for changing the electoral law, it was granted another six months to do so.
But now only eight days away, it’s still not going to complete the job in time.
The Department of Home Affairs’ external legal advice is that the additional changes can not be rubber-stamped without public consultation.
During Friday’s meeting, the Department of Home Affairs’ legal adviser Steven Budlender told the Portfolio Committee that they looked at three unrelated court cases to evaluate whether the public’s input was required for the NCOP amendments.
According to Budlender, two of these cases found that there was no requirement that public participation should be an ongoing dialogue.
The third litigation, however, involving the South African Veterinary Association, reached a different conclusion.
“The cases point in different directions depending on how you read them, but on balance our view is that we think it would be prudent to engage in further public participation. It can be a shortened period of public participation [and it can be] by means of written submissions [since] there’s no need to have oral hearings,” he said.
Budlender pointed out that it was up to the committee to decide whether the window for public comment happens before the 10 December deadline.
“What the extent of the public participation is really for that the committee to determine. If there is no time to do it then our view is that an application for extension must be made and it must be [filed] urgently at the very latest by Monday… perhaps for a limited period.”
It’s been proposed that a further extension of at least three months be requested to conclude the process.