Right way to get a bill signed

PROGRESS shown by the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform in making sure that the Communal Land Tenure Bill is finally passed into law has far-reaching ramifications.

In its aim of regulating and administrating communal land by entities chosen by communities, it means the minister of the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform is working in alignment with the law. For example, the Communal Land Tenure Bill stake- holder consultations held last October, which included stakeholders such as communal property associations, trusts, traditional councils and land NGOs, gave constituencies time to deliberate and make inputs on the proposed provisions in the bill.

This is heart-warming in that it gave stakeholders the platform to engage with a piece of legislation that will most affect them if ratified into law.

The exercise of including constituencies further justifies the process of the bill signed.

This is the right way to do things by the minister, considering the department is still smarting from the Constitutional Court ruling last July that declared the Restitution of Land Rights Amendment Act invalid as a result of engaging in inadequate public participation before the act was passed. Big ups to the department for considering its constituencies! Koketso Poo