CYBER SECURITY: DA CALLS FOR INPUT ON DRAFT CONSTITUTION AMENDMENT BILL

CYBER SECURITY: DA CALLS FOR INPUT ON DRAFT CONSTITUTION AMENDMENT BILL

• 13 May 2023
• Safety and Security
• SA Legal Academy

The DA’s Glynnis Breytenbach has once again announced her intention to table a Constitution Amendment Bill in Parliament proposing the establishment of a commissioner to regulate cyber security.

Given the threat posed by cyber attacks not only to many ‘fundamental rights but also to ‘critical infrastructure’ and South Africa’s relatively young democracy, it is envisaged that the commissioner would be ‘directly accountable to Parliament and not to the national executive’.

A notice calling for input on this proposal was initially gazetted in November 2022 and at the time would have taken the form of a Constitution 18^th Amendment Bill.

Breytenbach’s proposal is now being prepared as a Constitution 20^th Amendment Bill. This is noting that:

• a Constitution 18^th Amendment Bill on South African Sign Language tabled in January 2023 has since been passed by both Houses, and that
• the DA is preparing a draft Constitution 19th Amendment Bill with the aim of providing for ‘the removal of a President … (or) Premier through a motion of no confidence’, according to a media statement issued in March 2023 by the DA’s chief whip Siviwe Gwarube.

Against that backdrop, interested and affected parties now have a second opportunity to make written submissions on proposals for establishing a cyber security commissioner. The deadline for input has been set at 12 June 2023.

• May 2023 notice
• November 2022 notice
• media statement

Published by SA Legal Academy Policy Watch

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