Chairperson, the Constitutional Court recently declared two Acts of Parliament unconstitutional due to a lack of public consultation and participation. The Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs however went to great lengths and great expense to obtain the views of the public on the Civil Union Bill being considered here today.
Interested parties were provided an opportunity to present Parliament with written and oral submission and thousands of submissions were in fact received. Public hearings were mostly held in rural areas and it became abundantly clear that the majority of citizens preferred that reference to the words "marriage" and "same-sex" be deleted from the Bill.
After conducting public hearings the portfolio committee held a series of committee meetings at which very little was achieved. One of these meetings was scheduled for 6 November 2006, but members received scant notice of the meeting. Diaries had to be rearranged and appointments cancelled off to attend the meeting. An hour before the scheduled time, members were advised that the meeting was cancelled. No explanation for the cancellation of the meeting or an apology to members has been forthcoming. It became abundantly clear then that then ANC had not yet clarified their mandate. Committee members were asked to put their mandates before the committee, which they did, but no input came from the ANC.
Only two days later the ANC came up with an amended Bill now before Parliament. The Bill was steamrolled through the committee with no discussion being allowed and in totally unprocedural and undemocratic manner it virtually disregarded of the views of the public. According to press reports the chairperson of the portfolio committee now states that the Bill should be regarded as an interim measure.
Should this be true, it would probably have been easier and cheaper to allow the Constitutional Court judgement to take effect, i.e. by inserting the word "spouse" in the Marriage Act. It would have achieved the same result as this new Bill and it could have been amended in time to come. By just having two Bills, it could be seen as discrimination. The Bill is therefore unconstitutional; it would attract constitutional action and government should not be surprised if they land up with egg on their face once more.