Local Government Municipal Electoral Amendment Bill [B27B-2010], Births and Deaths Registrations Amendment Bill [B18B-2010] and South African Citizenship Amendment Bill [B17B-2010]: Finalisation

Meeting report

The Chairperson welcomed the delegation from Namibia that was attending the meeting. She explained to them the purpose of the meeting as well as the role of the Committee within the Department of Home Affairs.

Local Government Municipal Electoral Amendment Bill [B27B-2010]: adoption
The Chairperson proceeded to take the Members through the Local Government Municipal Electoral Amendment Bill, clause by clause and asked the Members to state after every clause whether they accepted the amendments. The Members accepted all the amendments contained in Clauses 1 to 11. Subsequently, she formally reported that the Committee had agreed to the Local Government Municipal Electoral Bill with amendments.

Births and Deaths Registrations Amendment Bill [B18B-2010]: adoption
The Chairperson then dealt with the Births and Deaths Registrations Amendment Bill on the same clause by clause basis. The Members accepted all the amendments. Subsequently, the Chairperson formally reported that the Committee had agreed to the Births and Deaths Registrations Amendment Bill.

South African Citizenship Amendment Bill [B17B-2010]: adoption
The Members agreed to the amendments contained in Clauses 1 to 5.

Clause 6(a) of the Bill which effected an addition to paragraph (c) of the principal Act, had to be rephrased so that it read “he or she engages under the flag of another country, in a war that the Government of the Republic does not support” instead of “he or she engages in a war, under the flag of a country, that the Government of the Republic does not support”.

The Chairperson explained that the Minister of Home Affairs had raised this issue in the briefing of the Bill and that it was therefore just a matter of effecting it by including it in the Bill. The Members agreed to the rephrasing.

Mr Gene Kritzinger, Director of the Department of Home Affairs, alerted the meeting to the fact that the rephrasing resulted in a consequential amendment. In its current form, paragraph (a) attempted to deal with the issue now dealt with in paragraph (c), but did this incorrectly. Accordingly, paragraph (a) had to be omitted so that the matter could be dealt with exclusively by paragraph (c).

The Committee agreed to the omission.

The Committee accepted the amendments contained in clauses 7 to 12. Subsequently, the Chairperson formally reported that the Committee had agreed to the South African Citizenship Amendment Bill.

The meeting was adjourned.