Deputy President Mashatile welcomes progress in Government legislative programme

Deputy President Shipokosa Paulus Mashatile has, in his capacity as Leader of Government Business in Parliament, welcomed the finalisation of key Bills by the National Assembly during the first three months of this year.
 
The latest Bills include the Public Administration Management Amendment Bill, the Public Service Amendment Bill, the Statistics Amendment Bill, the General Intelligence Laws Amendment Bill and the Electoral Matters Amendment Bill.
 
The public service Bills have now been referred to the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) for consideration.  As Section 75 (of the Constitution) Bills, the other Bills have been referred to specific parliamentary portfolio committees for processing. It bears reminding that the Constitution distinguishes between four categories of Bills, these being:
 
• section 74 Bills — Bills amending the Constitution;
• section 75 Bills — ordinary Bills not affecting the provinces;
• section 76 Bills — ordinary Bills affecting the provinces; and
• section 77 Bills — money Bills (that is Bills that deal with appropriations, taxes, levies or duties).

By the end of February, a total of 16 Bills had been sent to the President for assent. Deputy President Mashatile said: “This represents significant progress which we welcome. It takes us another step closer in the fulfilment of the mandate of the 6th democratic administration.”  

“We welcome this significant progress in the enactment of key legislation that will move our country forward in fulfilling the mandate of the 6th democratic administration. The significance of the legislative programme is that it is a linear and revolving responsibility to both enact legislation and fine-tune existing laws. We are confident that at the end of this term, all priority legislation will have gone through the rigorous parliamentary process, passed the constitutional master and become laws of the Republic, after the President has assented to the Bills,” said Deputy President Mashatile.

As Leader of Government Business, the Deputy President promotes accountability by the Executive. Among other things, he tracks the submission of responses to Parliamentary questions for oral and written reply as well as commitments made, monitoring programming and attendance of Members of the Executive before Parliament and Portfolio Committees, the implementation of the Legislative Programme and monitors the processing of priority Bills by Parliament.

Media enquiries: Mr Keith Khoza, Political Advisor and Acting Spokesperson to the Deputy President, on 066 195 8840
 
Issued by: The Presidency of the Republic of South Africa
Pretoria