Madam Deputy Speaker, in dealing with Parliament's equality review process, the Portfolio Committee on Justice and Constitutional Development convened hearings with the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development and the SA Human Rights Commission in order to assess the effectiveness of the Equality Act. Subsequent to the hearings the committee made the following recommendations:
That the Minister for Justice and Constitutional Development and the Chief Justice, together with the Judicial Services Commission, the Magistrate's Commission and the Justice College must ensure that ongoing training in respect of the implementation of ... Act 4 of 2000 takes place;
That the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development and the Justice College must ensure that support staff are appropriately trained in respect of the Act;
That the Department ... and the SA Human Rights Commission must embark on a public education campaign to increase awareness of the existence and procedures of equality courts and to raise awareness of sectors and practices ... that unfairly discriminate against the poor and vulnerable;
That the Department must table regular quarterly reports in Parliament pertaining to the details and progress on the designation and equipping of equality courts in the remaining magisterial districts by the end of April 2008 and the training of court staff and judicial officers;
That the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development must table annual statistics and analysis of cases dealt with in the equality courts throughout the country ...
And so it goes on. The IFP fully endorses these recommendations and wishes to request regular updates on the progress being made with the implementation. We accept the report. Thank you, Chairperson.