Public hearings mock democracy

The first round of public hearings on the Traditional and Khoi-San Leadership Bill, held in Mthatha on December 5 last year, was a manifest failure in public consultation. The hearings lasted for no more than three hours. They ended with many rural people not having had a chance to speak or comment on the Bill.

Parallel to the hearings, three members of Parliament held a separate meeting with traditional leaders at another venue. When these MPs rejoined the hearings, they did not report back on their private meeting with the chiefs.

The parliamentary committee did not present the Bill in the detail required. A brief and unsubstantial overview of the Bill was given, omitting some of its key provisions.

After a few people had made comments, a state lawyer with the committee was supposed to give a summary of people’s inputs to the Bill. But he tried to shift people’s focus away from the Bill, claiming that people were not commenting directly on the Bill but were referring to communal land — which is supposedly dealt with in a different piece of legislation.

The national co-operative governance and traditional affairs department primarily consulted tribal chiefs, government departments and other stakeholders who are not representative of rural people.

This is profoundly undemocratic, given that the Bill will affect more than 18-million people in rural areas.

Also, the announcement and notice of the public hearings was limited.

The failure of the public hearings such as that in Mthatha to listen to the people is compounded by the fact that the Bill is not available in isiXhosa, Sesotho or other languages.