To: |
ZA Dingani Secretary to Parliament |
From: |
Adv. SM Maifadi Manager: Parliamentary Services |
Subject: |
Comments on Bill: Human Sciences Research Council Bill |
Date: |
18 July 2007 |
Dear Mr.
Dingani
We refer to
the above subject matter.
The Human
Sciences Research Council Bill was referred to the National House by
parliament. The Bill has been classified as a section 75 Bill and a Bill
falling within the ambit of section 18(1) of the Traditional Leadership and
Governance Framework Act, 2003 (Act No 41 of 2003)
The
National House has carefully considered the Bill and hereby wishes to comment
as follows:
The House
therefore wishes to amend Section 14 by inserting a clause to read as follows:
14 (6) The
Council must, with regard to research conducted by employees of the Council in
the area under the jurisdiction of a traditional leader, notify the National
House of Traditional Leaders of its intention to conduct such research.
Thank you
Manager:
Parliamentary Services
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