DA PROPOSES BILL EMPOWERING PREMIERS TO CALL PROVINCIAL REFERENDUM

Please note: In a backdated notice gazetted on 18 April 2023, the DA's Annelie Lotriet announced that she has 'taken charge' of this matter now that Cilliers Brink has resigned from Parliament to become Thwane's new mayor.

The DA’s Cilliers Brink has gazetted a notice calling for input by 12 March 2023 on the contents of an Electoral Commission Amendment Bill. Once ready for tabling in Parliament, the Bill would seek to ‘extend the application of the Act to include a mechanism for the premier of a province to call for a referendum’. The notice also serves as a pre-tabling explanatory summary.

Apparently, sub-section 127(2)(f) of the Constitution already provides for what is envisaged but requires enabling legislation. To date, neither the Electoral Commission Act, 1996, nor the Referendums Act, 1983, has been amended to address this.

Brink’s notice is almost identical to one gazetted by Natasha Mazzone in June 2021. It is not clear why Mazzone’s proposals were taken no further at the time.

Published by SA Legal Academy Policy Watch

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