In terms of the speakers' list, I will call hon Shiceka.
Chairperson, I have been requested by the committee to present to you and request you to support the views of the committee in relation to the matter presented to it by the Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development on the matter that involves Magistrate Masimini.
The Minister presented the report to the committee, where the committee considered two matters. One matter is the provisional suspension of Mr Masimini as a magistrate and the second matter is the matter raised by the commission that Mr Masimini's salary should be withheld.
Mr Masimini was convicted on 24 November 2006 of assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm, what they call in security areas "assault GBH". He was convicted by the court at Ezibeleni in Queenstown. Based on that, we request this House to support the committee's views, taken on 14 April 2007 in terms of section 13(4A)(c) of the Magistrates Act of 1993.
Power is bestowed on and vested in this House to take a decision in terms of the said Act and the sections that I have quoted. We request you, therefore, to support this decision so that the magistrate can sit at home and know that violence cannot be accepted.
The intention of the committee is to set a precedent and to ensure that people who preside over others must lead by example. They must not be involved in acts that undermine the judiciary, acts that undermine our democracy. When they sit on the Bench, they must be beyond reproach. We must respect their decisions because we know that they lead society by example and because we know that they are role models in our society. In that respect, we request this honourable House to concur with the views of the committee.
Thank you very much.
Debate concluded.
That concludes the debate. I shall now put the question. The question is that the report be adopted.
As the decision is dealt with in terms of section 65 of the Constitution, I shall first ascertain whether all the delegation heads are present in the Chamber to cast their provinces' votes. Are all delegation heads present?
In accordance with Rule 71 I shall first allow provinces the opportunity to make their declaration of vote if they so wish.
We shall now proceed to the voting on the question. I shall do this in alphabetical order per province. Delegation heads must please indicate to the Chairperson whether they vote in favour or against or abstain from voting.
IN FAVOUR: Eastern Cape, Free State, Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo, Mpumalanga, Northern Cape, North West, Western Cape.
All provinces voted in favour. I therefore declare the report adopted in terms of section 65 of the Constitution.
Report accordingly adopted in accordance with section 65 of the Constitution.