Madam Deputy Chairperson, hon members, firstly, I want to say that as the ANC we fully support this piece of legislation. I want to highlight the issues that were raised by the provinces. I am not sure whether the hon Watson was part of the meeting that had the final mandates, because provinces had given indications on how the process was done at provincial level and the reason why they took a decision to support that piece of legislation. I would probably urge the hon member to go through all the submissions that were made by provinces.
There was a proposal by KwaZulu-Natal to say that we needed to change the name of tribunals. After having discussions at the committee level, the department clarified that issue by saying, in fact at the beginning, that that was not their proposal but that the parliamentary committees had come up with that particular wording of tribunals in 1996 and that was why we have that wording here. And they were saying it was up to the committees of Parliament to amend the very same word that was proposed by the committees.
Secondly, I think there was also confusion, particularly regarding clause 13, because the provinces of KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape wanted clarity on that, asking if we were not contradicting the very same clause. But that section is substituted by clause 14 which, I believe, if both KwaZulu-Natal and Eastern Cape read carefully, will of course support this particular legislation. On the argument for KwaZulu-Natal not to come up with a mandate as to whether they support or not, they said they wanted clarity on that particular aspect. But as a member from that particular province, I would urge my province to support it after having read this carefully.
As the chairperson of the committee has said, six provinces voted in favour at that particular meeting. In fact, even Gauteng voted in favour. But the problem with Gauteng was that their mandate was not signed and we urged the member from that particular province to go out and ask their province to give a formal final mandate, and he came with the signed mandate after the meeting was adjourned. I believe that right now the seventh province has voted in favour. [Interjections.]
Only one province, namely the North West, said it couldn't give a mandate because it didn't do any of the processes in terms of that legislation. The member said he was told not to come and brief the province and at a later stage he was also told that because the briefing was not done in the province, that they therefore couldn't participate in taking a particular decision. [Interjections.]
Therefore, I would urge those provinces, particularly KwaZulu-Natal, to support the Bill. Thank you, Chairperson. [Applause.]