APPROPRIATIONS BILL 2024/25: RUSHED BOX TICKING PROCESS CONTINUES

APPROPRIATIONS BILL 2024/25: RUSHED BOX TICKING PROCESS CONTINUES

• 25 July 2024
• Parliament
• SA Legal Academy

Please note: The 2024/25 Appropriation Bill was passed by the National Assembly and NCOP on 25 and 31 July 2024 respectively. During the NCOP plenary session concerned (4:35:23), Tamarin Breedt (FF Plus, Free State) was the only delegate to draw attention to the rushed parliamentary process and its implicacations for the seventh administration under a government of national unity. Nobody mentioned the procedural irregularitdy outlined below. The minutes of that session simply reflect the vote itself (penultimate page). The Act was gazetted on 20 August 2024, when it also came into force.

The NCOP’s Appropriations Committee proceeded with its plans to hold public hearings on the latest Appropriation Bill on 24 July 2024 – despite the fact that it had not yet been passed by the National Assembly.

This follows the 17 July 2024 publication of a committee notice calling for written submissions within two days, in anticipation of those hearings and announcing the date on which they were expected to be held. At the time, that development was added to an earlier SA Legal Academy report on the rushed National Assembly process.

Having been tabled in February 2024 with the Budget, the latest Appropriations Bill would normally have been considered by the National Assembly during May. However, this was not possible because of the elections. As a result, the Bill lapsed and had to be revived. Its provisions are to some extent linked to the committees’ consideration of departmental annual performance plans, departmental budgetary requirements and related ministerial and deputy ministerial budget vote speeches.

The rushed, procedurally flawed manner in which Parliament has dealt with the 2024/2025 Appropriations Bill tends to point to the distinct possibility that the public consultation process entailed is nothing more than a box ticking exercise. One can only hope that this will be addressed once the seventh administration settles down under a government of national unity.

• parliamentary papers dated 23 July 2024 announcing the tabling that day of the National Assembly Appropriations Committee’s report on the Bill, recommending that it be passed without amendments (the report can be found on page 5)
• National Assembly order paper for 25 July 2024 (page 2)
• committee statement confirming its intention to proceed with hearings     
• Bill
• parliamentary media statement announcing that the Bill was passed on 25 July 2024 and sent to the NCOP for concurrence (by which time, in fact, NCOP hearings had already taken place)
• SA Legal Academy report

Published by SA Legal Academy Policy Watch

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