Parliament, Friday, 24 March 2017 – The Portfolio Committee on Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (CoGTA) will from 27 to 31 March 2017 hold the final phase of its nationwide public hearings on the Traditional and Khoi-San Leadership Bill in Limpopo, Mpumalanga and Gauteng.
The first hearings of this final phase will be held in Limpopo at the Thohoyandou Town Hall on Monday, 27 March, and in Polokwane on Tuesday, 28 March 2017 at the Central City Hall.
The Committee will then proceed to Mpumalanga to hold similar hearings at Nelspruit’s Mbombela stadium on Wednesday, 29 March, and in KwaMhlanga Community Hall on Thursday, 30 March 2017.
The final hearings will be held in Pretoria on Friday, 31 March, at the Eersterust Civic Centre.
All hearings are scheduled to start at 10 am.
The Bill was tabled before the Committee in 2015 by the Department of Traditional Affairs. The residents and traditional leaderships of Northern Cape, Western Cape, Eastern Cape, North West, Free State and KwaZulu-Natal have already commented on it. The Committee will only deliberate on the inputs and make recommendations to the National Assembly after all provinces have had an opportunity to make comment on this draft legislation.
According to Committee Chairperson Mr Richard Mdakane, the Committee intends finalising processes related to this Bill before June 2017.
Mr Mdakane emphasised that this draft legislation cannot be passed into law without the views of the people. Hence this process of public participation the Committee is engaged upon. He called upon all community members and grouping in the above-mentioned areas to attend these hearings in order to make their voices heard.
The Bill provides for, among other things, the statutory recognition of the legitimate Khoi-San leadership and communities and has been in the legislative pipeline since 1997. The Committee feels that it is now the appropriate time to take this draft legislation to the public for comments.
The recognition provisions contained in the Bill do not elevate the Khoi-San communities and leaders to a higher status than other traditional communities and leaders or grant any special status to them. Instead, recognised Khoi-San traditional leaders will, in respect of their recognised communities, perform the same functions as the currently recognised senior traditional leaders. This is to avoid a potentially divisive hierarchy among South African communities, as occurred under the colonial and apartheid regimes.
- The Bill also provides for specific criteria for the recognition of headmen and headwomen, and the conducting of investigations to establish whether the headmenn and headwomen so established meet the criteria for recognition.
Draft Programme of the Portfolio Committee on Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs
ISSUED BY PARLIAMENTARY COMMUNICATION SERVICES ON BEHALF OF THE CHAIRPERSON OF THE PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE ON COOPERATIVE GOVERNANCE AND TRADITIONAL AFFAIRS, MR RICHARD MDAKANE
For media enquiries or interviews with the Chairperson, please contact:
Name: Temba Gubula
Parliamentary Communication Services
Tel: 021 403 8307 / Cell: 078 735 8809 / 081 402 3531
Email: tgubula@parliament.gov.za
Arrange a tour