Of the 19 bills Parliament passed in 2020, nine are must-do Budget laws, with two others ensuring Covid-19 tax relief. Eight laws, some dating back years, are in the president’s inbox, awaiting signature. 

In the last days of the 2020 parliamentary calendar the National Assembly passed four bills and sent them to the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) pending action in 2021. The Election Laws Amendment Bill which, among other things, brings the voters’ roll in line with the protection of personal information regimen, is urgent – it must be in place before the 2021 municipal poll. 

Four other bills sent to the NCOP were sent back with changes and must return to the National Assembly for adoption before being passed by Parliament. 

While 2020 bills were dominated by often technical amendments, many laws brought about crucial changes, such as the Civil Union Amendment Act, which bans Home Affairs officials from refusing to marry same-sex couples.

Some amendment legislation was necessary because of Constitutional Court rulings.

The Prescription in Civil and Criminal Matters (Sexual Offences) Amendment Bill, which was passed mid-2020 and awaits the president’s signature, arose from a unanimous June 2018 Constitutional Court judgement to extend the period of prescription for certain sexual offences to 20 years. It follows successful litigation by survivors against the Estate of the late Sidney Lewis Frankel.

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Running behind a Constitutional Court deadline is the Local Government: Municipal Systems Amendment Bill that bans municipal managers and others from holding political office and regulates performance matters. The 9 March 2017 judgment allowed 24 months for this to be remedied, but the amendment law was passed in the National Assembly on 3 December.

It is part of the quartet of bills before the NCOP in 2021, alongside the Electoral Laws Amendment Bill, the Upgrading of Land Tenure Rights Amendment Bill and the Auditing Profession Amendment Bill.

Among the bills returned by the NCOP to the National Assembly after changes is the Recognition of Customary Marriages Amendment Bill, which was triggered by another Constitutional Court deadline. The court gave Parliament two years from its November 2017 judgment to ensure women enjoy equal property rights in customary marriages regardless of when the marriage was entered into. The November 2019 deadline has passed, but Parliament is set to finalise the law in early 2021. 

Another Constitutional Court-required legislative change just made the deadline of 22 October 2020, when the president signed the Judicial Matters Amendment Bill into law that day. It’s been in his in-tray since 3 September after the NCOP had passed the law that removes discrimination against women from the Divorce Act.

Ramaphosa has taken his time – sometimes a lot of it – in the past. And while it is no reflection on Parliament it does affect the statute book and governance. 

Still to be passed as the 2020 parliamentary year closed was the Public Investment Corporation (PIC) Amendment Bill, to provide trade union and pension board representation and greater transparency in PIC investments that require depositors’ approval.

It took six months for the president, on 3 June 2020, to sign the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid) Amendment Act into law, giving Parliament oversight over the suspension of any police watchdog boss.

The Child Justice Amendment Act, which raises a child’s age of criminal capacity from 10 to 12 years, was passed by Parliament in 2019, but signed into law also on 3 June 2020. As was the Promotion of Access to Information Act Amendment Bill (now Act), which allows access to party political funding details. 

This was a consequential amendment arising from Parliament adopting the Political Party Funding legislation in June 2018 – one of the few self-generated pieces of legislation the president signed into law on 21 January 2019. But the law remains in limbo on a technicality: the outstanding date for the president to determine the Multi-Party Democracy Fund must come into operation. 

Traditionally, the day the president signs a bill into law is the day it comes into effect.

Also in the presidential in-tray are the Air Traffic and Navigation Services Company Amendment Bill and the Airports Company Amendment Bill, two of the more technical draft laws tightening definitions and introducing appeals structures that date to 2018, alongside the National Land Transport Amendment Bill.

In Covid-19 2020, Parliament processed three pieces of not-amendment legislation, including the National Public Health Institute of South Africa law, tabled in 2017, finalised by 25 February 2020 and signed into law in early August.

The Cybercrimes Bill, first tabled in 2017, finally passed mid-2020, but because of changes by the NCOP the National Assembly had to adopt it again on 2 December 2020 before it was sent for presidential assent.

The controversial Border Management Authority (BMA) law, which first came to Parliament in 2016, passed the final lawmaking hurdle in March 2020, and was signed by the president in July. The bill dates to Jacob Zuma’s presidency when Home Affairs was moved into the security cluster of ministers. 

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But the recent Budget cuts are understood to be limiting the authority to the most troubled areas, or four of the 10 segments that represent South Africa’s land border.

And while much progress was made on the trio of bills to bolster the government’s anti-gender-based violence action – proposing, among other things, online protection order applications, more stringent bail conditions in sexual offences and changes to the register of sexual offenders – these were not brought to the House, pending legal advice on a number of issues.

These are set to be prioritised in 2021, but action remains unclear on the Secrecy Bill, officially the Protection of State Information Bill, which Ramaphosa referred back to Parliament in June 2020. It’s been left unprocessed in the chock-a-block parliamentary calendar.

Meanwhile, controversy is set to follow the Traditional Courts Bill, one of the four bills the NCOP returned to the National Assembly on 2 December. Only KwaZulu-Natal and the Western Cape opposed what was the third attempt in 12 years.  

First tabled in 2008 and immediately dismissed, it was tabled again in 2012 but ultimately failed to meet the necessary NCOP support. It was retabled in 2017 after a substantial, widely consulted revision that included an opt-out clause, but which was removed from the current version. 

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Critics say that without the opt-out clause this bill effectively establishes a separate legal system for South Africa’s 18 million rural residents – and that’s unconstitutional. It’s expected the bill, if signed into law, will be taken to court.

But the bulk of 2020 lawmaking was on money bills, including the first extra adjustment appropriation in June, dubbed emergency Covid-19, ahead of the October Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS).

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That includes the various appropriation and adjusted appropriation bills, division of revenue laws and the amended division of revenue, as well as a raft of tax laws.  

For lawmakers those are non-negotiable given the statutory deadlines so money can be disbursed from the national purse. 

But Parliament has the right to amend, or even refuse to adopt, a money bill under the 2009 Money Bills Amendment Procedure and Related Matters Act. To date, lawmakers have not made that choice; it always seemed a step too far. But that may change. DM