Hon Deputy Speaker and hon Deputy President, I stand before you to say that the ANC will support this Bill. The hon Deputy Minister was very kind in his lavish praise of the Portfolio Committee on Justice and Constitutional Development, and because he has already covered substantial portions of what is contained in the Bill, I will therefore not go there.
However, as it is usually the case, it is my role to set out for you the procedure that we followed in the portfolio committee in our consideration of the Bill.
The portfolio committee received written submissions from, amongst others, the SA Human Rights Commission, the Commission for the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Cultural, Religious and Linguistic Communities, the Commission for Gender Equality, and a late submission by the Public Service Commission. I will not deal with the submissions made by the first three I have referred to. However, I would like to address the submission made by the Public Service Commission.
As we know, the Public Service Commission is established in terms of Chapter 10 of our Constitution. However, section 219(5) of our Constitution does not draw a distinction between institutions referred to in Chapter 9 and those elsewhere in our Constitution.
During our deliberations on the matter, the portfolio committee acknowledged the strength and validity of the argument put forward by the Public Service Commission, to the extent that initially the committee resolved to include the Public Service Commission in the Bill. Regrettably, however, the law advisers serving the committee reminded us that to include the Public Service Commission would alter the classification or tagging of the Bill from the section 75 tagging it presently enjoys, to that of being a section 76 Bill, which would have led to serious logistical problems. Effectively, changing the classification would have delayed the passing of this Bill.
That being said, the portfolio committee resolved not to include the Public Service Commission or the Financial and Fiscal Commission at this point, on the eve of the general elections, but that the new portfolio committee appointed by the fifth democratically elected Parliament should do so as soon as it was reasonably possible with the co-operation of the Ministry of Justice and the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development.
We take this opportunity to express our appreciation to Messrs Johan Labuschagne, Johan de Lange and Lawrence Bassett for their commitment to producing excellent quality legislation such as the Determination of Remuneration of Office-Bearers of Independent Constitutional Institutions Laws Amendment Bill, which is before the House as I speak.
I also want to say that I have been privileged and honoured to have served as chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Justice and Constitutional Development during this Fourth Parliament. We are blessed with a committee whose members are dedicated and hard-working, and serve with distinction in striving to hold government to account and to produce legislation which we can all be proud of.
I crave your indulgence, hon Deputy Speaker, to say a few kind words to someone who will not be returning to this House, and I refer to the hon Dene Smuts. The hon Dene Smuts epitomises everything that an elected public representative should be. She is diligent, honest, committed, forthright in her views, tough and uncompromising. As this is coupled with a determination to hold government and the executive to account, it means that this National Assembly will be a poor place without her. Thank you. [Applause.]