Constitution
17th Amendment Bill : good or bad?
- 30 June
The Constitution 17th Amendment Bill was published on 17 June. Six
days later, Helen Zille, leader of the Democratic Alliance [DA],
issued a statement summed up in the slogan "Provinces must
stay; Constitution 17th Amendment Bill must go". Zille states
that the Bill is "intended to entrench the hegemony of the
ANC across South Africa" and is "driven" by the
ANC's "inability to accept that the DA won a popular mandate
to govern in the Western Cape". But Zille tells us very
little about the Amendment Bill itself, except to say that
"The Constitution 17th Amendment Bill empowers national
government to usurp powers from local government" and links
this to an apparent attempt by the ANC to "scrap",
"eliminate" or "reduce" provinces. The Bill
does not contain the word "province". It is
intended to increase national control over municipal executive
power. - Politicsweb
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