CORRECTIONAL SERVICES ACT: AMENDMENT BILL HEADS TO PARLIAMENT, MORE THAN TWO YEARS AFTER CONCOURT JUDGMENT

CORRECTIONAL SERVICES ACT: AMENDMENT BILL HEADS TO PARLIAMENT, MORE THAN TWO YEARS AFTER CONCOURT JUDGMENT

• 01 June 2023
• Parliament
• SA Legal Academy

Please note: On 1 June 2023, the Bill was tabled in Parliament in draft form in terms of Joint Rules of Parliament Rule 159 - which requires the Minister responsible to submit a draft of the Bill and an explanatory summary to both Houses ‘as soon as possible’ after that Bill’s approval by Cabinet. The following day, the certified Bill was formally introduced. As soon as a copy is available, it will be the focus of a separate SA Legal Academy article.

The Department of Correctional Services has issued a backdated Government Gazette notice in the form of an explanatory summary, announcing the imminent tabling of a Correctional Services Amendment Bill.

According to a media statement on the Cabinet meeting at which the Bill was approved:

• it responds to a December 2020 Constitutional Court judgment on the independence of the Judicial Inspectorate of Correctional Services, and
• once in force will affect the application of the principal statute’s sub-section 88A(1)(b) and section 91, which the judgment declared invalid. These sections respectively deal with:
  • the conditions of service of retired judges, and
  • Judicial Inspectorate expenses.

The Constitutional Court allowed Parliament two years to make the amendments necessary to remedy these provisions – a deadline to which a Detention Justice Forum media statement drew attention on 14 September 2022.

As far as can be ascertained, neither Justice & Correctional Services Minister Ronald Lamola nor either of his departments has issued a media statement responding to the judgment or indicating whether an extension to the deadline has been requested and granted.

The Bill’s explanatory summary also refers to provisions intended to align the Act with ‘ratified international legal instruments’ by defining the terms ‘sexual violation’ and ‘torture’.

Dated 26 May 2023, the explanatory summary appeared in the eGazette several days later. It is yet another example of the type of confusion created when links to a backdated Government Gazette are inserted among those for e-notices genuinely published that day. It would appear that a link to the backdated e-notice was added in the same fashion to the South African Government website.

In terms of National Assembly Rule 276(1)(c), a Bill may only be introduced in Parliament if an explanatory summary of its contents, or the draft Bill to be tabled, has been gazetted.

• explanatory summary
• Constitutional Court judgment
• Cabinet media statement
• Detention Justice Forum media statement

Published by SA Legal Academy Policy Watch

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