Issued by: Constitutional Assembly
28 August 1995
The Sub-Committee of the Constitutional Committee (CC) met today (Monday 28 August 1995) to discuss draft constitutional formulations relating to the subjects of Independent Institutions and the National and Provincial Legislative (parliament) and Executive (cabinet) Competencies.
Discussion of draft constitutional formulations on the issue of the security apparatus was postponed to an unspecified date at the request of the ANC.
The Sub-Committee noted that the term "Independent Institutions" might not be applicable to all the institutions that are supposed to fall under this chapter, i.e. the Reserve Bank, the Human Rights Commission, the Public Protector, among others. This, the Sub-Committee noted, was because these institutions performed different functions - the Reserve Bank, for example, was a policy-making decision while the Public Protector was a monitoring organ.
The Sub-Committee also ordered that the Constitutional Assembly's Law Advisors as well as members of the Panel of the Independent Constitutional Experts meet with the Auditor-General to discuss certain provisions relating to the future constitutional position of the Auditor-General's office.
A discussion on the majorities required to appoint officers for the above-mentioned offices was postponed to a later stage.
The Sub-Committee went on to discuss draft constitutional text relating to the subject of the National and Provincial Legislative and Executive Competencies. The draft that was prepared by constitutional advisors was adopted as the basis from which further discussion will take place.
CA Chairperson, Mr Cyril Ramaphosa, described the draft as "the slate from which we will work from".
There was no serious opposition from the parties, noted Ramaphosa, save for a few questions, comments and omissions that the experts may have made in regard to the submissions made to the CA on this subject.
The experts were asked to prepared another draft taking into account the comments and the concerns of omissions that were raised.
The new draft will be presented and discussed by the Sub-Committee at its next MOnday meeting.
Issued by: Enoch Sithole Head of Media Tel (021) 24 5031 083 651 2222 Fax (021) 24 1160/2 Pager (021) 21 5420 Code NAT 1215