MEMORUNDUM

To: Mrs N M Oliphant: The Chairperson: NCOP Committees

From: Mr F Adams (Chairperson): Select Committee: Members Legislative Proposals

Subject: Application for hosting a workshop on Petitions

DATE: 25 October 2007

Purpose:

To request authorisation to host a workshop, in the last week of January 2008, that would deal with receiving and processing petitions in the National Council of Provinces and the Provincial Legislatures.

Background:

The above committee has recently been assigned to deal with petitions in terms of the new rules of the NCOP (Rules 229 - 236). The committee in considering these rules of the NCOP found that they do not provide sufficient guidance in terms of the procedure.

To this end, the guidelines in terms of rule 229 must still be developed and put before the subcommittee on the review of rules.

The committee envisages hosting the workshop in Gauteng Province which is central almost to all provinces; and inviting at least one Constitutional Law expert as well as members of the NCOP, procedural officers, relevant members of the Provincial Legislatures the assigned Parliamentary Legal Adviser, and the researcher to the workshop.

The objective of inviting the above individuals is to share practical experiences and to gather best practices from other national and international jurisdictions.

Hope you will find this in order