Land Court Bill: adoption; Committee Budget Vote reports

Meeting report

Opening remarks

The Chairperson said the Committee would deal with the Land Court Bill [11B- 2021]. She said that on 3 May 2023, the Committee received amendments to the Land Court Bill proposed by the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development (DoJ&CD). The Committee requested that the proposed amendments be tabled and this was what would happen in the meeting. The Department would present the substantive and technical amendments. The Committee would deliberate clause-by-clause.

She asked if Dr Barbara Loots, Parliamentary Legal Services and Ms Ayesha Johaar, Office of the State Law Adviser, had anything to say.

Dr Loots said that the presentation seemed aligned with what the Department had previously proposed. The document was more of a report than a C-list.

Ms Johaar said that there were no objections to the proposed amendments.

Proposed amendments to the Land Court Bill

Mr Henk du Preez, State Law Advisor, DoJ&CD, took the Committee through the substantive amendments to the Land Court Bill. He asked if he should go through the C-list or the summary.

The Chairperson said that Mr du Preez should use the summary as the Members should have already gone over the C-list.

Substantive amendments

Clause 8 Appointment of Judges of Court

No objection.

Clause 12 Appointment of assessors

No objection.

Clause 14 Rules governing procedure of Court

No objection.

Clause 25 Conferences

No objection.

Clause 27 Variation and rescission of orders of Court

No objection.

Clause 33 General provisions applicable to Court

No objection.

Clause 34 Removal of action or proceedings

No objection.

Item 9 of Schedule to Bill (Laws amended)

No objection.

Technical or consequential amendments

Mr E Mthethwa (ANC, KZN) asked if Mr du Preez could go over the working document so that Members could refresh their minds on what had been changed. He mentioned that Members were using their devices and could not see the working document.

Mr du Preez said that he would share the working document for some context.

Clause 7 Jurisdiction of Court

No objection.

Part 2 Rules, powers and functions of Court

No objection.

Clause 17 Powers of Court on hearings of appeals

No objection.

Part 3 Witnesses, witness fees and admissibility of evidence

No objection.

Clause 24 Powers of Court

No objection.

Clause 26 Court orders

No objection.

Clause 32 Appeals against judgment or orders of other courts

No objection.

Clause 35 Transitional arrangements

No objection.

Clause 36 Amendment of laws

No objection.

Clause 37 Regulations

No objection.

Long title

No objection.

The Chairperson said that the Land Court Bill had now been tabled with the proposed amendments.

There were no objections and the Land Court Bill with the proposed amendments was adopted. The Committee also adopted its draft report on the Land Court Bill.

Committee reports

The Chairperson went through the Committee’s reports on budget vote 28 (Department of Police), budget vote 24 (Independent Police Investigative Directorate) and budget vote 21 (Civilian Secretariat for Police).

There were no objections.

All the reports were duly adopted.

The meeting was adjourned.