The DA’s Power Bill has been getting strong resistance from political parties, and seemingly from residents of the Western Cape following the latest round of public hearings on the bill.
But the ruling party in the provincial legislature says legal opinion doesn’t prevent the bill from being debated in the house and for the bill to be taken through the usual processes.
This emanates from a decision of the Ad Hoc Committee to resume with public hearings regarding the Western Cape Powers bill.
The committee held a virtual meeting on Friday.
Several organisations and opposition parties slammed the party from pushing ahead with public hearings, despite legal opinions from the legislature’s advisor.
Advocate Romeo Maasdorp indicated that the bill is founded on politically loaded statements.
The staff of the house was apparently not involved in the research process.
The bill’s aim is to devolve certain functions from national government to provinces.
It has identified five functions – namely policing, public transport, energy, trade, and harbours.
The DA’s Christopher Fry says they’re not ignoring the legislature’s legal opinion.
“There’re also other bills that are currently before other provincial legislatures which were referred to them by the National Council of Provinces that whereas the bill has been noted and the bill is constitutional, but the public participation has gone already. This is part of the legislative process, and the legal opinion is also part of that”.
Picture: Western Cape Provincial Parliament
