Structure of the Presentation

PRESENTATION TO SELECT COMMITTEEOF THE NCOPTRADITIONAL LEADERSHIP AND GOVERNANCE FRAMEWORK AMENDMENT BILL, 2008 AND NATIONAL HOUSE OF TRADITIONAL LEADERS BILL, 2008 03 SEPTEMBER 2008

Structure of the Presentation • Background • National House of Traditional Leaders Bill • Bill amending the Traditional Leadership and Governance Framework Act

Background • Two pieces of legislation impacting of traditional leadership identified for amendment. • National House of Traditional Leaders Act • Passed in 1994 in line with the 1993 interim Constitution • Repealed in 1997 and replaced with a new Act which was amended in 1998 and 2000 • Not fully in line with the White Paper on Traditional Leadership and Governance adopted in 2003 as the Act was passed before the adoption of the White Paper • Bill repeals the current Act and replaces it with a clean and comprehensive Act Traditional Leadership and Governance Framework Act • Passed in 2003 after the adoption of the White Paper on Traditional Leadership and Governance adopted in 2003 • Provincial Legislation passed in line with the Framework Act • Implementation in a period of over 3 years has revealed a number of gaps and challenges that need to be addressed through an amendment • Province -specific challenges also necessitate the amendment

BackgroundCont ….. • Bills approved by Cabinet for tabling in parliament on 20 May 2008; • Bills published for public comment on 3 June with closing date of 02 July 2008; • Bills introduced into Parliament (NA and NCOP) in early June; • The dplg conducted consultations with key stakeholders, i.e. kings and queen, senior traditional leaders, headmen / women, national and provincial houses, CRL Commission, Commission on Traditional Leadership Disputes and Claims, SALGA and provincial governments; • The portfolio Committee on Provincial and Local Government opened for public comments and held public hearing – comments considered and amendments effected; • National Assembly passed the two Bills on 20 August

National House of Traditional Leaders Bill • The Bill provides for the following key areas: • Preamble capturing the history on the NHTL; • the establishment of the National House of Traditional Leaders; • Three members elected from each provincial house • Special provision where there is no provincial house • Term of office of the House is five years • Membership restricted to senior traditional leaders and conditional representation by headmen • Election of members to the House by provinces • Minister and Premiers now to play a role (calling for elections and receiving names) • Secret ballot, observed by officials of the House and of the Dept • Designation of a leader of the provincial delegation

National House of Traditional Leaders Bill • to determine powers, functions and duties of the House; • Alignment with the White Paper (and the Framework Act) • to provide for support to the House by government; • Financial, administrative, capacity building, human resources, etc • Status of Members • Chairperson and deputy chairperson • President to determine that certain members are full time.

National House of Traditional Leaders Bill Cont… • The Bill provides for the following key areas: • to provide for the relationship between the House and the Provincial Houses; • The house to have a clearly define relationship with the provincial houses for accountability and alignment. • Relationship between House and Kings and Queens • Kings and queens to have statutory relations with the House in respect of regular meetings and protocol issues • to provide for the relationship between the House and Government in terms of its accountability on the House; • Regulates the relationship with government, including the issues of submission of annual reports and holding of meetings. • Opening of the House by the President

National House of Traditional Leaders Bill Cont… • The Bill provides for the following key areas: • Responsibilities of the House • More accountability to the House in terms of meetings, finances, activities, record keeping, etc. • More responsibility to the Secretary of the House • to provide for general matters incidental to the functioning of the House.

National House of Traditional Leaders Bill Cont……. • The Bill further provides for the following general issues (not fully discussed in this presentation): • Qualification and disqualification of members; • Excluded certain people from membership (clause 5) • Vacation and filling of seats in the House; • Seats to be filled within a short period of time • Seat and Meetings of the House; • House to meet in parliament or at admin seat • Chairperson and Deputy Chairperson of the House; • Elected by members and may be removed by two thirds of members • Privileges and Immunities of members; • Freedom of speech in the meetings of House • Remuneration and benefits of members; • Determined by the President in terms of Act 20 of 1998 • Rules, orders and committees of the House; • To be determined and adopted by the House itself, and provision for executive committee representative of provincial houses

National House of Traditional Leaders Bill Cont……. • The Bill further provides for the following general issues (not fully discussed in this presentation): • Dissolution of the House; • House remains in office until new House is sworn in • Oath of Office; • Members to take an oath when assuming office (oath attached as schedule) • Code of Conduct; • Code of conduct for members in addition to their code as ordinary traditional leaders) • Regulatory powers of the Minister; • Minister, after consultation with House and parliament, to issue regulations on certain matters as is necessary; and • Repeal of laws and transitional matters; • all the current Acts on the House will be repealed in terms of the new law

Bill amending the Traditional Leadership and Governance Framework Act • The Bill provides for the following key areas (see details in the following 4 slides): • Membership of kingship/queenship councils and traditional councils to be determined by a formula and not restricted to 30; • the recognition of kingships/queenships and the establishment of kingship/queenship councils; • functions of the kingship/queenship councils; • provision for establishment of traditional sub-councils and a chairperson of the sub-traditional council where the area of jurisdiction of a traditional council constitutes more than one geographic area; • appointment of a person to act as a king/queen as an interim measure where a paramount chief dies before the Commission determines the position of current paramountcies

Bill amending the Traditional Leadership and Governance Framework Act • The Bill provides for the following key areas (see details in the following 4 slides): • Provision for the withdrawal of recognition as a paramountcy and appointment as a paramount chief; • the extension of the period within which the traditional authorities as well as community authorities must be transformed in line with the Act (community authorities to be administered as if the old order legislation had not been repealed pending decisions of the Commission); and • Alignment of terms of office of all the structures of traditional leadership with that of the NHTL • Provincial legislation to provide for relationship between kings/queens and provincial houses

Bill amending the Traditional Leadership and Governance Framework ActThe Bill provides for the following key issues for amendment:

Issues Covered in the Bill for Amendment

THANK YOU!

Structure of the Presentation