DA’s 21st CONSTITUTION AMENDMENT BILL UNLIKELY TO FLY?

DA’s 21st CONSTITUTION AMENDMENT BILL UNLIKELY TO FLY?

• 13 February 2025
• Parliament
• SA Legal Academy

The Department of Justice & Constitutional Development has expressed reservations about a Constitution 21^st Amendment Bill tabled by the Democratic Alliance in November 2024.

Providing for the establishment of an ‘anti-corruption commission’ as a new Chapter 9 institution, the Bill was the focus of a departmental briefing at a recent meeting of the National Assembly’s Justice & Constitutional Development Committee. According to the presentation document concerned:

• by empowering the proposed new institution to ‘investigate high level corruption  … based on a perceived inability of existing institutions to do so’ – yet working in tandem with them – the Bill’s proponents appear to have overlooked:
  • the fiscal implications of ‘duplicating mandates’, and
  • the ‘watchdog’ role of chapter 9 institutions.

While this role includes the ‘powers of investigation to support their work’, the overarching purpose of a Chapter 9 institution is to strengthen constitutional democracy. These institutions were never intended to ‘perform functions that fall within the administrative sphere of government’.

Further, in the department’s view, creating a constitutional entity to perform tasks existing law enforcement agencies institutions appear unable to fulfil ‘will not be sufficient’ to address the issue.

This is noting that, in August 2022, the President ‘established the National Anti-corruption Advisory Council (NACAC) as a multi-sectoral advisory body to monitor the implementation of the 2020-30 National Anti-corruption Strategy. NACAC’s role includes recommending how most effectively to strengthen South Africa’s existing anti-corruption architecture. These recommendations ‘are awaited’.

• presentation document
• Bill
• 2020-30 National Anti-corruption Strategy

Published by SA Legal Academy Policy Watch

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