Committee wants answers on bill delays

THE National Assembly wants answers about the bills that were sent to the Presidency for assent but were never signed into law over a six-year period.

This emerged during the programming committee meeting on Thursday when DA chief whip Natasha Mazzone raised the matter which was raised by the African Christian Democratic Party’s Steve Swart at a previous meeting.

There are 12 bills President

Cyril Ramaphosa has to sign, with some dating back to the era of his predecessor Jacob Zuma.

Secretary to the National Assembly Masixole Xaso told the committee that Speaker Thandi Modise indicated that she would take up the matter with the leader of government business, Deputy President David Mabuza.

“The Speaker has indeed written to the leader of government business. This matter is being attended to,” Xaso said.

The Parliamentary Monitoring Group said the law states the president can only sign a bill, return it back to Parliament or send it to the Constitutional Court if uncertain of its constitutionality.

“The big question, though, is what is a reasonable time to complete this task and can he simply let legislation gather dust in his in-tray?”

Meanwhile, the parliamentary administration was ordered to compile a report on the more than 3000 apartheid laws that were identified as requiring repeal and referred to the committee for consideration.

Xaso asked that the administration compile a report on all the legislation and indicate how far the committee were able to attend to the laws.

|