Hon Chairperson, Deputy Minister, and members, the most significant aspect of this Bill is contained in clause 18. The establishment of the sectional titles schemes management advisory council is a progressive move. It will allow for the proper, full-scale implementation of this Act and for the regulations to be kept under regular review. This idea of keeping the review regular is highly desirable.
It is worth noting that the Bill demands that the advisory council "must make recommendations to the Minister with regard to any amendments thereof, or other action which may be advisable". If the word "must" is taken as an imperative, the advisory council will be judged by the number of recommendations it makes each year.
To fulfil this expectation, it is imperative that the advisory council makes its existence known to all sectional title holders so that it can receive inputs for analysis and comment. The creation of an interactive website will be an absolute necessity. The Minister of Human Settlements and the department must facilitate this without any delay.
Regarding the Community Schemes Ombud Service Bill, boards and their functions have become contested terrain in South Africa. This is because they have become politicised. We appeal to the Minister of Human Settlements to ensure that he goes strictly by the provision of clause 7(4) so that he appoints people with the requisite skills, experience and availability to fully implement these functions.
Under clause 42(d) regulations must be made to allow for independent arbitration and the use of small claims courts before a more expensive court is indicated. If the application is being implicated by any law lacuna, it should immediately be brought to the Minister's attention so that administrative procedures may be used to deal with this problem.
Finally, clause 22 is making provision for levies to be collected from community schemes. This will require proper prior consultation with representatives of schemes, because this will be seen as a new form of tax. With these reservations in mind, Cope supports the two Bills.