Chairperson, I rise at the end of this debate in support of the Bill. It has definitely been in this House for a long time - in fact, I think it is the second oldest Bill in the NA at the moment. It was introduced shortly before the World Cup in 2010. There was some pressure on the committee to rush it through, but the committee felt that given the complexity of the whole issue - in terms of the crimes, the issue of support and the fact that a number of departments were involved - it was better to take time.
Another point that needs to be made is that there are existing laws that make trafficking, or certain parts of trafficking, illegal. In this way, the Sexual Offences Act makes trafficking for sexual purposes illegal and criminal; the Children's Act makes trafficking children for whatever reason a crime; and the Basic Conditions of Employment Act restricts the ability to force people to work for nothing. So, there were existing laws. The committee has spent an enormous amount of time on this Bill. So, even though it has been with us for some time, we have spent many hours and gone through numerous drafts of the Bill. As some of my colleagues have said, we have looked particularly at widening the scope of crimes relating to trafficking, putting them together in one comprehensive list. In that regard we worked with the National Prosecuting Authority and the South African Police Service.
We have also looked at the issue of tightening the provisions relating to the care and treatment of victims. One of the members on this side, the hon McIntosh, raised the problem of the vast number of refugees in South Africa in a motion. We did not want a situation where people could try and access benefits in terms of this Act by claiming that they had been trafficked without the necessary safeguards. That was one of the areas we looked at.
We also looked at the issue of co-operation between the different departments because, from our experience with the Child Justice Act, that is often quite a difficult point.
One of our problems, which some of the speakers alluded to, is that we do not have any accurate statistics relating to trafficking. You really need to know the extent of the problem before working out how much resources need to be put into it, particularly when trafficking is dealt with by the NPA and the police together with other major crimes, such as sexual offences and children in trouble with the law. That was a major problem. One of the things that the Bill provides for is mechanisms for reporting. Hopefully the problem of statistics and knowing the extent of the problem is something that will be dealt with. It should not continue to occur.
As some of my colleagues have said, one of the crucial issues is the issue of the implementation of the Bill. It will be important for this House, the justice committee and, in fact, for other committees because this Bill involves the departments of Justice and of Police - in fact the Police portfolio committee in the last Parliament went on a study trip to Australia, to go and look at the issue. This Bill involves Departments of Justice, Police, Social Development and Home Affairs, so it will be important for this House to monitor the implementation of the Bill.
What we have done - and this was a new innovation, which we did close to the end - is to ensure that different sections of the Bill can be implemented at different times. The intention would be that the sections relating to criminal law - the crimes of trafficking - can be implemented almost immediately. Sections that may take longer, such as developing regulations for accredited organisations, can take longer but as soon as this Bill is passed by both Houses, the criminal components can come into effect to close the loopholes that are in the law, particularly relating to labour trafficking, people supporting trafficking, renting out property that is used for trafficking and so on. In closing, I think it is very important and it is very good -again, some of my colleagues have alluded to this - that this was a multiparty effort. The justice committee as a whole was able to come together, thrash out these issues and come up with a product that we expect the whole House will support. [Applause.]
UNGQONGQOSHE WEZOBULUNGISWA NOKUTHUTHUKISWA KOMTHETHOSISEKELO: Ngiyabonga Sihlalo, okwami wukuthi elethu, makube njalo! Ngibonga wonke amaqembu ezombusazwe kuleli Phalamende ngokweseka lo Mthethosivivinywa obaluleke kakhulu ukuze zonke lezi zigebengu eziganga ngezwe lethu ziyobhadla ejele. Ngiyabonga. (Translation of isiZulu paragraph follows.)
[The MINISTER OF JUSTICE AND CONSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENT: Thank you, Chairperson, I agree with you - let it be so! I wish to thank all the political parties in this Parliament for supporting this very important Bill. This will ensure that all these criminals in our country are put behind bars. Thank you.]
Debate concluded.
Bill read a second time.