Mapula Thebe – editor

Government has undertaken a task to relook at all laws that were passed after 1994. The High Level Panel on the Assessment of Key Legislation and the Acceleration of Fundamental Change, chaired by former President Kgalema Motlanthe, has extended the deadline for written submissions from the public to 20 August.

According to a press statement issued by the panel, the South African Legislative Sector’s Speakers’ Forum launched the panel in January to assess the effectiveness of key legislation passed by Parliament and Provincial Legislatures since 1994, through public consultations across the country and other research process. The panel will also assess implementation of South African laws, identify gaps and propose necessary interventions and recommendations. This will involve identifying laws that need strengthening or amendment and which are enablers of the country’s transformational agenda. It will also involve assessing laws that impede South Africa’s developmental agenda. The panel is scheduled to submit its final report in August 2017.

The panel is looking at the legislation passed through three main focus areas –

• poverty, unemployment and the equitable distribution of wealth;
• land reform, sustainable livelihoods and rural development and security of tenure; and
• social cohesion and nation building.

The legislation to be relooked at would include laws that have the greatest direct impact on South Africans such as combating poverty, services and delivery thereof, education, health, employment, housing, combating crime, social development and the legislation that seeks to protect and improve the lives of women and children.

Legal practitioners are more exposed to legislation than other members of society that is why it is imperative for practitioners to take this opportunity and raise any issues they may have had with laws passed since 1994.

Only written submissions will be accepted, however, if legal practitioners wish to make oral submissions, this will be accommodated by means of the planned radio debate and public hearings. Submissions, with the details of senders, should be sent by to PO Box 2164, Cape Town 8000 (attention Leanne Morrison) or e-mailed to highlevelpanel@parliament.gov.za. Public hearings in all provinces will be held in the following months:

• Eastern Cape – August 2016
• Free State, Northern Cape – September 2016
• KwaZulu-Natal – October 2016
• Gauteng – November 2016
• Western Cape – early December 2016
• Limpopo, Mpumalanga – late January 2017
• North West – February 2017

This article was first published in De Rebus in 2016 (July) DR 4.