Chairperson, hon Minister, hon members, the original Rental Housing Act, Act 50 of 1999, provides for the establishment of provincial rental housing tribunals, through which conflicts between tenants and landlords can be speedily resolved and at a minimum cost to the parties.
The Act went so far as to confer the powers of a magistrate's court on the Rental Housing Tribunals and that is: a ruling by the tribunal is deemed to be an order of a magistrate's court, in terms of the Magistrate's Court Act of 1944.
However, once an order has been granted, it is then up to the justice system to implement and enforce such an order. The lack of enforcement of such an order has been identified as one of the shortcomings of the Act.
Another shortcoming identified was in the composition of the tribunals. The Act provides for a chairperson and deputy chairperson to be appointed by the relevant MEC. Due to the fact that the tribunal members are not full- time appointees, it has been experienced, on occasion, that both the chairperson and the deputy chairperson have been absent from a scheduled hearing, and therefore the hearing had to be postponed.
The Rental Housing Amendment Bill before us for approval today seeks to specifically broaden the definition of what constitutes an unfair practice, and the Minister referred to it. It also seeks to make further provisions for rulings by rental tribunals; to expand the provisions pertaining to leases; to extend the period allowed for the filling of vacancies in the tribunals.
It must be noted at this point that rental tribunals have not, to date, been established in all nine provinces. Nevertheless, it is encouraging that they have indeed been established in the most populous urban provinces and are reported to be working particularly well in Gauteng, the Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal.
It is also interesting to note that the number of cases handled by the tribunals has escalated exponentially despite very little, if any, marketing done by the tribunals to advertise their services.
Another housing-related Bill - the Social Housing Bill - is scheduled to be tabled before this House in October. The effectiveness or otherwise, as the case may be, of the outcomes achieved with the Social Housing Bill, will have a direct bearing on the workload and efficiency of the rental tribunals.
I make this statement because the aim of the Social Housing Bill is to promote the supply of rental housing. It therefore goes without saying that the role of the tribunals will become more important as the objectives of the Social Housing Bill become a reality.
I briefly want to touch on some of the amendments before us, one of which is of section 13 of the Act, which states that a ruling by the tribunal is deemed to be an order of a magistrate's court. Unfortunately, the shortcomings related to the implementation of such orders cannot be addressed in this Bill. It has to be done in the justice cluster, and I appeal to the Minister to liaise with that cluster in this regard.
What is of concern to me, however - and the Housing department has not commented on this at all - is this: One of the submissions by a magistrate indicated that the magisterial powers given to tribunals were a violation of section 170 of the Constitution. Indeed, he suggested that "a tribunal is not a court and cannot in this clandestine manner obtain that status". The State Law Advisers did not concur, and this clause was amended by adding a subclause that said, "The tribunal does not have jurisdiction to hear applications for eviction orders."
The committee also inserted a clause giving the members of the tribunal the authority to elect a temporary chairperson for the purposes of a hearing if both the designated chairperson and deputy chairperson are absent.
The amending Bill before us addresses the shortcomings identified over which it has jurisdiction, and the DA therefore supports the Bill as amended. I thank you. [Applause.]