Mandating Procedures of Provinces Bill [B8D-2007]: Final Mandates

Meeting report

Mandating Procedures of Provinces Bill: final mandates
The Chairperson noted that not all the provinces had sent their mandates yet.  He suggested they proceed with those that had been received.

Free State
Mr Worth said that the Bill had been approved by the Free State. 
 
KwaZulu-Natal
Mr Z Ntuli (ANC, KwaZulu-Natal) said that the provincial legislature had met on 24 June and had agreed to mandate its NCOP delegate to vote its approval of the Bill.

Northern Cape
Mr van der Merwe said that the Northern Cape supported the Bill.

Western Cape
Mr N Mack (ANC, Western Cape) said that the Western Cape was practicing silent diplomacy!  The provincial government had been briefed the previous day on the final mandate, and the issue had been debated and finalised the previous evening.  The authority should have been sent in the course of that morning.

The Chairperson noted that one of the problems might be that some of the provinces were planning to send their mandates only later in the day as this meeting had been scheduled for 17h00. The meeting had been brought forward. Seven provinces needed to agree on the Bill in order for a Section 76 bill to be approved.  It might be that mandates had been given but not yet forwarded to the Committee.  He decided that the Committee take a lunch break while the committee secretary followed up with the provinces.

Afternoon session

Eastern Cape
Mr le Roux said that the relevant committee in the Eastern Cape legislature had been briefed on the amendments.  These were of a technical and logistic nature and did not represent a major change to the legislation.  He was mandated to approve the Bill.

Gauteng
Mr Shiceka said that Gauteng would vote against the amendments due to the substantive changes to the wording.  The Gauteng Rules Committee could not recommend the adoption of the Bill and he was mandated to vote accordingly.

Mpumalanga
Mr van der Merwe read the Mpumalanga mandate, which was in favour of the Bill.

Voting on the Bill
The Chairman put the issue to the vote.  He reminded permanent delegates that they were required to vote according to the mandate given by their provinces.  The Bill was supported by Eastern Cape, Free State, KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo, Northern Cape, Mpumalanga and the Western Cape.  It was not supported by Gauteng.  No mandate was received from North West and there was no provincial representative present at the meeting.  It was therefore resolved that the Committee supported the Bill by seven votes to one.  He thanked all the Members for their assistance during the year thus far.

Mr le Roux thanked the Members and the Chairpersons.  The Members might not always agree, but always treated each other with respect.

The Committee approved the following minutes with amendments: 29 January 2008, 12 February 2008, 13 February 2008, 11 March 2008, 12 March 2008.

The meeting was adjourned.