Chairperson, according to the Order Paper of today the NCOP is due to nominate four members to the Judicial Service Commission in terms of section 178(1) of the Constitution. According to the same Order Paper section 178(1)(h) reads as:
There is a Judicial Service Commission consisting of six persons designated by the National Assembly from among its members, at
least three of whom must be members of opposition parties represented in the Assembly.
Section 70 (1)(b) of the Constitution reads:
The National Council of Provinces make rules and orders concerning its business, with due regard to representative and participatory democracy, accountability, transparency and public involvement.
It further reads in section 70 (2)(c) that:
The participation in the proceedings of the Council and its committees of minority parties represented in the Council, in a manner consistent with democracy, whenever a matter is to be decided in accordance with section 75.
The Judicial Service Commission is, according to the Constitution, part of Chapter 8: Courts and Administration of Justice, which is section 75 function.
Therefore, I refer to the letter that I wrote to the Chairperson and the Chief Whip that one member of the DA should be included in this delegation. As it is the rule the Constitution says that the NCOP
has four members, but it does not indicate that all have to be from the ANC. Therefore that Rule should be read with the other rules that give direction on how the NCOP should do the business. So, this is unconstitutional, and is not in the spirit of representivity and definitely not in the spirit of democracy. I therefore call on the Chairperson to include one of the DAs in the commission. Thank you.