Deputy Speaker, the Portfolio Committee on Justice and Constitutional Development considered the Judicial Matters Third Amendment Bill, which was tabled as a proposed section 75 Bill, but was subsequently tagged as a section 76 Bill by the Joint Tagging Mechanism on the basis that it contains certain provisions that affect the concurrent powers of provinces, as set out in Schedule 4 of our Constitution.
In order to expedite the passage of those provisions of the Bill, to which the section 76 procedure would not apply, the committee rejected clauses 17, 36, 39, 42, 43, 46 and 49(3), which were argued could possibly affect the concurrent powers of the provinces in a substantial measure. The committee resolved to initiate a separate Bill, focusing solely on these clauses.
The purpose of the Judicial Matters Third Amendment Bill is to amend section 78 of the Attorneys Act, which in the Judicial Matters Amendment Bill was clause 17. The Bill further seeks to amend certain provisions of the Child Justice Act, which in the Judicial Matters Amendment Bill were clauses 36, 39, 42, 43 and 46.
The committee has already received public inputs and deliberated on these clauses as they were part of the Judicial Matters Amendment Bill that I have referred to. There is therefore no need for the Bill to be published in the Government Gazette for public comment.
Therefore, we stand before this House seeking its permission to initiate the Judicial Matters Third Amendment Bill as a matter of urgency. Thank you. [Applause.] There was no debate.