Deputy President Paul Mashatile has welcomed the finalisation of key Bills by the National Assembly during the first three months of this year.

These 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.

According to a statement by the Presidency, 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.’

The Constitution distinguishes between four categories of Bills involving those amending the Constitution; ordinary Bills not affecting the provinces; ordinary Bills affecting the provinces; and money Bills including those that deal with appropriations, taxes, levies or duties.’

Meanwhile, 16 Bills have been sent to the President for assent by the end of Fe
bruary.

Deputy President Mashatile, in his capacity as leader of Government Business in Parliament, described the development as significant progress, which takes the nation closer to the fulfilment of the mandate of the sixth 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,’ he said.

As the 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 replies and commitments made.

He also monitors the programming and attendance of Members of the Executive before Parliament and portfolio committees,
the implementation of the legislative programme and the processing of priority Bills by Parliament.

Source: South African Government News Agency