28 February 2023
The National Assembly (NA) has, during its hybrid plenary this afternoon, passed the South African Postbank Limited Amendment Bill and the Repeal of the Transkeian Penal Code Bill.
The South African Postbank Limited Amendment Bill seeks to amend the South African Postbank Limited Act, 2010, to facilitate the transfer in shareholding from the South African Post Office SOC Limited to the Government and the creation of a bank controlling company for ”The Postbank SOC Limited” in terms of the Banks Act, 1990; which will provide for the appointment of the chief executive officer and the chief financial officer.
The Repeal of the Transkeian Penal Code Bill proposes to repeal the Transkeian Penal Code, 1983, which continues to apply in the area formerly known as the Republic of Transkei and to reinstate the application of the common law and rules in that area.
The Code was enacted when the area formerly known as the Republic of Transkei
became nominally ‘independent’. Despite the incorporation of the area into South
Africa under the new democratic dispensation, in terms of the Constitution, 1996, the
Code remains in force until repealed or amended.
Having considered the Bill, the Portfolio Committee on Justice and Correctional Services believes that it is untenable that the Code, which codified the criminal
law, continues to apply so many years after the area was incorporated and the people living there continue to be subject to a different system of criminal law to that applied in the rest of South Africa.
The Portfolio Committees on Communications and Justice and Correctional Services recommended that the NA approve the Bills.
The two Bills will now be sent to the National Council of Provinces for concurrence.
During the same sitting, the NA also considered and granted the Portfolio Committee on Justice and Correctional Services a second request for permission in terms of Rule 286(4)(b) to extend the subject of Cannabis for Private Purposes Bill.
The Committee’s second request proposes that the scope of the Bill should be broadened and the extension of its provisions should be considered to cover hemp as hemp and cannabis plants are of the same species in so far as to make the Bill optimally implementable.
When it was introduced, the Bill, broadly proposed to amongst others respect the right to privacy of an adult person to possess cannabis plant; cultivation material; to cultivate a prescribed quantity of cannabis plants; to possess a prescribed quantity of cannabis; to consume cannabis and to regulate the possession of cannabis plant cultivation material; the cultivation of cannabis plants; the possession of cannabis; and the consumption of cannabis by an adult person and to protect adults and children against the harms of cannabis.
Flowing from the public submissions the Committee identified certain subjects that the introduced Bill did not address and in terms of Rule 286(4)(b) of the National Assembly Rules sought and received the Assembly’s permission to extend the subject of the Bill to, in addition provide for commercial activities in respect of recreational cannabis, provide for the cultivation, possession and supply of cannabis plants and cannabis by organisations for religious and cultural purposes on behalf of their members; and respect the right to privacy of an adult person to use cannabis for palliation or medication.
The Committee published the Bill containing the proposed new clauses and further received public comments. The second request to extend the subject flows from the public submissions received by the Committee after publishing the new proposed clauses.
ISSUED BY THE PARLIAMENTARY COMMUNICATION SERVICES
