Sign the Fica bill, Zuma urged
• Opposition parties concerned over presidential delays
The opposition in Parliament has urged President Jacob Zuma to sign the amended Financial Intelligence Centre Amendment (Fica) Bill into law without further delays after it was adopted unanimously in the National Assembly on Tuesday.
The bill is intended to strengthen measures to combat money laundering and the financing of terrorism. It will require enhanced vigilance over the financial transactions of prominent influential persons, who include government officials and business executives.
Promulgation is vital if SA is to comply with its obligations to the Financial Action Task Force, which last week gave the country more time to finalise the bill.
The bill was sent back to Parliament by Zuma six months after it was passed by the institution in May 2016 because of his concerns about the constitutionality of its provision for warrantless searches.
Opposition party MPs expressed concern that there was no requirement on the president to sign a bill into law or to refer it to the Constitutional Court if he objected to it.
African Christian Democratic Party MP Steve Swart suggested Parliament conduct an audit of bills passed that were not acted upon by Zuma.
He noted that the controversial Protection of State Information Bill (the secrecy bill) was still sitting on Zuma’s desk even after he had referred it back to Parliament, which had amended it and returned it to him.
“It should not be allowed that the president sits with a bill once he has exercised his constitutional prerogative and not sign it into law as that undermines the separation of powers and Parliament. If he still has a concern, he is fully entitled to refer the bill to the Constitutional Court,” Swart said.
EFF chief whip Floyd Shivambu said there needed to be a time frame within which Zuma was required to sign bills.
Shivambu referred to the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Bill, which he said lay on the president’s desk for 24 months without being signed and then was sent back to Parliament.
DA finance spokesman David Maynier emphasised that the Fica bill was one of the most important weapons in the fight against corruption. Of concern to the Guptas and their supporters, he said, was the clause providing for enhanced scrutiny over the financial transactions of domestic prominent and influential persons and their family members and close associates.
This was the reason, he said, that Progressive Professionals Forum president Mzwanele Manyi was so strongly opposed to the bill.
After the amendments introduced by the finance committee and that were intended to tighten up the provisions related to warrantless searches — Zuma would have no choice but to sign the bill into law, Maynier said.
Finance committee chairman Yunus Carrim said senior counsel Ishmael Semenya and Jeremy Gauntlett had concluded that the warrantless searches provision of the bill was constitutional, but suggested minor amendments could be made to clarify the authority of the inspector performing warrantless inspections.
“The committee finally decided to make minor amendments to the bill to clarify the authority of the inspector performing warrantless inspections and to prevent arbitrary exercise of this power,” Carrim said.