BASIC EDUCATION LAWS AMENDMENT BILL: PARLIAMENTARY PROCESS UPDATE

BASIC EDUCATION LAWS AMENDMENT BILL: PARLIAMENTARY PROCESS UPDATE

• 18 August 2023
• Parliament
• SA Legal Academy

According to a backdated media statement eventually posted on Parliament’s website on 18 August 2023, the National Assembly’s Basic Education Committee has concluded clause-by-clause deliberations on the Basic Education Laws Amendment Bill. No further statements have been issued on the controversial public participation process report – by any of the parties concerned.

The committee is expected to meet early in September to consider an ‘A-list’ of proposals for changes to the Bill arising from clause-by-clause deliberations on its contents.

Regarding the public participation process report, Parliament’s YouTube channel recording of proceedings on 16 August 2023 provide interesting insights into what unfolded following a walk-out by opposition party representatives the previous day. The report was adopted in their absence.

Perhaps most importantly, there are apparently no parliamentary guidelines on compiling public participation process reports and no format or standards to which committee support staff should adhere. This is according to parliamentary legal adviser Phumelele Ngema.

She was responding to input from the ACDP’s Marie Sukers, who had drawn attention to what may, in fact, have been a gap in the process itself rather than the report. In Sukers’ experience as a member of other committees processing legislation, clause-by-clause deliberations on a Bill are usually informed by a ‘matrix’ of responses to stakeholder input prepared by the department concerned and a parliamentary legal adviser.

Parliamentary Monitoring Group records of committee meetings on the Basic Education Laws Amendment Bill this year tend to suggest that members have yet to receive such a document.

However, according to Ngema each parliamentary committee follows its own process in preparing a document on written submissions and oral representations. The ‘resources and capacity’ of a committee determine the approach taken, along with any ‘directive’ received from the committee itself. She made no reference to any departmental obligations in that regard.

It was with this in mind that members agreed to proceed with clause-by-clause deliberations noting that each clause would be read out by the committee’s content adviser and that members would then have an opportunity to raise any issues reflected in the public participation report. Departmental officials would respond to those issues before the process continued to the next clause in the Bill.

• committee media statement
• Bill as tabled in January 2022 and now being revised
• public participation process report
• recording of 16 August 2023 meeting

Published by SA Legal Academy Policy Watch

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