IPID AMENDMENT BILL: NATIONAL ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE CALLS FOR SUBMISSIONS

IPID AMENDMENT BILL: NATIONAL ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE CALLS FOR SUBMISSIONS

• 14 September 2023
• Parliament
• SA Legal Academy

Please note: On 27 September 2023, the committee issued a media statement reminding stakeholders of the opportunity to make submissions on the Bill.

According to a notice posted on the Parliamentary Monitoring Group website, the National Assembly’s Police Committee has called for written submissions by 2 October 2023 on the Independent Police Directive Amendment Bill. At the time of writing, Parliament had yet to publish the notice itself.

Tabled in July 2023, among other things the Bill responds to a September 2016 Constitutional Court judgment on provisions in the principal Act authorising the Minister of Police to take certain steps without parliamentary oversight and affecting the IPID’s executive director. These provisions were declared invalid.

Against that backdrop, once operationalised the proposed new piece of legislation is expected to:

• ‘entrench the (IPID’s) institutional and operational independence’, and
• ‘make it expressly clear’ that the IPID should not only be independent but also ‘impartial, … exercise(ing) its powers and functions without fear, favour or prejudice’.

The Bill also seeks to extend the IPID’s mandate to include investigations into allegations of rape and murder by police officers while on or off duty.

• Bill
• notice
• Constitutional Court judgment

Published by SA Legal Academy Policy Watch

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