South African Law Reform Commission extends closing date for comment on its Discussion Paper 133 on Statutory Law Revision in respect of legislation administered by the Department of Home Affairs to 30 June 2015
In 2004 the South African Law Reform Commission (SALRC) included in its law reform programme an investigation into statutory law revision (project 25). In this investigation the SALRC is mandated by Cabinet with the task of revising the South African statute book to identify and recommend for repeal or amendment legislation or provisions in legislation that are inconsistent with the equality clause in the Constitution, redundant or obsolete. The methodology adopted in this investigation is to review the statute book by department. The SALRC identifies a department, reviews the national legislation administered by that department for constitutionality and redundancy, sets out the preliminary findings and proposals in a consultation paper and consults with that department to verify the SALRC’s preliminary findings and proposals. The next step that the SALRC undertakes is the development of a discussion paper in respect of the legislation of each department, and upon its approval by the SALRC, the paper is published for general information and comment. Finally, the SALRC develops a report in respect of each department that reflects the comment on the discussion paper and contains a draft Bill proposing amending legislation.
The SALRC has reviewed the 56 statutes which are administered by the Department of Home Affairs as part of this investigation. On 18 January 2015 the SALRC published its Discussion Paper 133 on the review of home affairs legislation.
The SALRC provisionally proposed that:
- the statutes set out in Schedule 1 of the Home Affairs and Related Matters Laws Amendment and Repeal Bill be repealed for the reasons set out in Chapter 2 of Discussion Paper 133;
- the Acts set out in Schedule 2 of the proposed Bill be repealed to the extent set out in that Schedule, for the reasons set out in Chapter 2 of this discussion paper; and
- the provisions of the Acts set out in Schedule 3 of the proposed Bill be amended for the reasons set out in Chapter 2 of this discussion paper.
The closing date for comment on discussion paper 133 is 31 May 2015. The SALRC has decided to extend the closing date for comment to 30 June 2015 to grant stakeholders further opportunity to consider the provisional findings, proposals and the draft Bill proposed in Discussion Paper 133 and to submit comment to the SALRC on the discussion paper. Discussion Paper 133 is available on the Internet at http://www.salawreform.justice.gov.za/dpapers.htm.
Any enquires should be addressed to the researcher allocated to the project:
Ms Maureen Moloi
Tel: 012 622 6330
Fax: 012 622 6362
E-mail gmoloi@justice.gov.za
