28 May 2007
RE: COMMENTS ON THE HUMAN SCIENCES
RESEARCH COUNCIL BILL
The Human
Sciences Research Council (HSRC) has studied the above bill and, also informed
by comments made by members of the HSRC Council, wishes to submit the following
comments for your attention and possible feedback.
1. Definitions
We submit
that the current definitions section of the HSRC bill is lacking in that it
does not define “PAJA”, which is referred to in section 5 (8) of the Bill. We
suggest the following definition “PAJA”
means the Promotion of Administrative Justice Act, 2000 (Act No. 30 of 2000)”.
2. Board of Council
We suggest that section 5 be amended
by inserting the following -
We further suggest
that section 5 (10) of the Bill be amended by substitution of the word “four”
with the word “five”. The HSRC is of the view that the duration of the term of
office should be similar to the duration of the term of office for the CEO,
which is five years.
3. Meetings of Board
We suggest
that section 7 (5) should be amended as follows “The quorum for a meeting of
the Board is fifty percent of its members plus one.”
4. Committees of Board
Section 8
(4) provides that a member of the Board may not serve on more than two
committees. We recognize that it may be necessary, for effectiveness of the
Board committees, that the CEO and some Board members
serve in more than two board committees. We, therefore, request that this
section 8 (4) be deleted from the Bill.
5. Transfer or secondment
of certain persons to or from employ of Council
We submit that section 13 be amended
by
(a) Substitution of the word “or”
between the words “State” and “of” in subsection 1, 2 and 3, with a comma; and
(b) Inserting the following
expression “and another institution” between the words “State” and “may”
in subsection 1, at the end of subsection 2 and between the words “aid from the
State” and “may” in the last sentence of subsection 3.
6. Intellectual property rights
We submit
that section 15 (1) be amended by inserting the words “or of any works
eligible for copyright protection” between the words “design” and “by an
employee”.
7. Transitional provisions
It appears
to us that in terms of section 20 (3), the current board members who were
appointed by regulations issued in terms of the Human Sciences Research Act,
1968, will continue in their roles as board members when this Act comes into
force, until their term of office come to an end or until such time the
Minister issues new regulations that terminate their appointment.
We will
appreciate it if you can confirm whether our understanding of this transitional
provision is correct.
We trust that these comments will be
of value to you.
Yours sincerely
Dr O Shisana
President and CEO