Bill, Bills, Bills

By Sheilan Clarke

In the second term of Parliament, three bills were passed, eight were introduced and 22 are still in the deliberation process. Check out this list of bills that you should familiarise yourself with:

National Liquor Policy

• Status: Up for public comment

Basically, government wants the legal drinking age increased from 18 to 21. Meaning, if you are 19 years old, no more late nights at the club as no alcohol should be served to you by law. Also there is a time restriction by which registered liquor sales should be banned. This new age restriction could see fewer instances of young people being caught in a situation like the shebeen stampede in Khayelitsha recently.

Maintenance Amendment Bill

• Status: Up for public comment

This Bill aims to be even tougher on those who don’t pay child support. Failure to pay child support can see the offender sit in jail for up to three years. Currently, if the parent who fails to pay maintenance is working, money is deducted from their salary per court order or goods are removed from their homes and put up for auction. If the address of the offender is unknown, cellular operators would be obliged to track them down using their cell number.

Draft Firearms Control Amendment Bill

• Status: Up for public comment

An increase in gun violence, the shocking killings of Senzo Meyiwa and Reeva Steenkamp, are just some of the reasons why the public called for stricter gun control. One of the amendments to this Bill is to award a semi-automatic shotgun or firearm licence to someone who is a serious sport-shooter for at least two years.

Criminal Law (Sexual Offences and Related Matters) Amendment Act

• Status: Signed in to law

Young people between the ages of 12 and 16, who engage in consensual sexual behaviour, will not be criminally charged according to the newly signed. Children’s Rights group Rapcan welcomed the amendments as they believe the previous law banned children from sexual acts which they believe is normal adolescent behaviour.

Eskom Special Appropriation Bill

• Status: Passed into law

So, Eskom can’t always provide us electricity but what this new bill means is it allows the crippling parastatal to take an additional R23 billion from the National Revenue Fund to do its job. How this is done: government will sell off assets worth R23 billion, put that into the National Revenue Fund (all our taxes go into this “bank”). The government will then take this amount, as allowed by this Act and as stated in Chapter 13 of the Constitution, and give it to Eskom.

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