Hon Deputy Speaker, as a result of the inter-relationship between the Constitution Twelfth Amendment and the Cross-Boundary Municipalities Laws Repeal and Related Matters Act of 2005, the Constitutional Court declared that part of the repeal Act, which relates to the Matatiele Municipality, to be unconstitutional. That is the reason for this amending Bill, which is dependent on the passing of the Constitution Thirteenth Amendment Bill.
The crux of the matter relates to the nature and scope of the constitutional obligations to facilitate public involvement in the legislative processes, as stated in the Matatiele case, and I quote: "Clearly, the duty to facilitate public participation had required that the people of Matatiele be given the reasonable opportunity to engage with the KwaZulu-Natal legislature." The KwaZulu-Natal provincial legislature did not hold public hearings or invite written submissions on the issue.
Similar arguments pertain to this Bill as to the Constitution Thirteenth Amendment Bill. It would, in our view, be premature to support this Bill until the public hearings have been held in the affected areas. The ACDP will not support this Bill. [Time expired.]