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National assembly - Coggle Diagram
National assembly
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3) Internal procedures
- S 57(1) (A) – NA determines and controls it's own internal
arrangements.
- At all times parliament is obliged to act within the parameters of the Constitution
Executive Council of the Western Cape v Minister for Provincial Affairs and Constitutional Development 2000 (1) SA 661 (CC) at 100.
- Con. Court stated that the constitutional power of
legislatures to regulate the internal proceedings of their committees is a narrow one.
- It does not relate to power to regulate the main structural components of the legislature which are fully regulated by the Constitution
- Can regulate the working committees which either house may establish or disestablish from time to time
DeLille v Speaker of the National Assembly 1998 (3) SA 430 (C) & Speaker of the National Assembly v DeLille 1999 (4) SA 863 (SCA)
- DeLille alleged during a meeting that some members of the governing party had been spies for the apartheid government
- Ad hoc committee established to investigate this
- Committee recommended suspension
- NA suspended DeLille from the NA for 15 days.
- High Court held that the NA’s resolution to suspend
DeLille violated several provisions of the Constitution:
- Suspension is not consistent with the requirements of representative democracy. Penalised not only the member but also the party and the electorate who voted for the party.
- DeLille was not given a proper hearing by the ad
hoc committee – right to just administrative action was violated
- Ad hoc committee dominated by ruling party – not
given a fair hearing by an independent & impartial tribunal as required by the Constitution
- Her right to freedom of expression was violated
- On appeal, the decision of the High Court was confirmed by the SCA, on narrower ground that there was no constitutional authority for the NA to punish any member of the NA for making a speech, by suspending the member from proceedings of the NA
- This case shows that the internal procedures of the NA may not be in conflict with the Constitution, parliamentary legislation or the common law.
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