JUDICIAL MATTERS AMENDMENT BILL: FINAL OPPORTUNITY TO MAKE SUBMISSIONS

JUDICIAL MATTERS AMENDMENT BILL: FINAL OPPORTUNITY TO MAKE SUBMISSIONS

• 06 November 2023
• Parliament
• SA Legal Academy

Please note: On 8 November 2023, the Bill’s 'B' version became available on the Parliamentary Monitoring Group website – five days into the two-week commentary period. At the time of writing, the committee notice had still not been updated.

The NCOP’s Security & Justice Committee has issued a notice calling for written submissions by 17 November 2023 on a ‘B’ version of the Judicial Matters Amendment Bill, which was passed by the National Assembly in September.

According to the notice, among other things the Bill seeks to:

• ‘repeal of the common law crime of defamation’
• ‘ensure that the regimes of all existing customary law marriages are … regarded as being in community of property’, and to
• ‘decriminalise admission of guilt fines issued during the Covid-19 hard lockdown’.

At the time of writing, three days after the committee notice was posted on Parliament’s website:

• the embedded link to the Bill’s ‘B’ version was still not functioning, and
• a copy of the notice posted on the Parliamentary Monitoring Group website included the faulty link but did at least feature one to to the original Bill.

When alerted to the problem, the NCOP committee secretary undertook to ensure that a working link to the Bill would be added to the notice by close of business on Monday 6 November 2023.

Although the National Assembly’s Justice & Correctional Services Committee made no substantive changes to the tabled Bill, stakeholders have lost at least three of the 14 days available to make submissions on a still unpublished revised version.

• committee notice
• original Bill as tabled
• ‘A’ list reflecting changes made by the National Assembly committee

Published by SA Legal Academy Policy Watch

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