The South African Law Reform Commission (SALRC) hereby releases its Discussion Paper 123 on Project 25: Statutory law revision in respect of legislation administered by the Department of Defence for general information and comment. The discussion paper sets out the SALRC's preliminary recommendations for law reform regarding statutes administered by the Department of Defence.
In January 2003 Cabinet approved that the Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development co-ordinates and mandates the South African Law Reform Commission (SALRC) to review provisions in the legislative framework that may result in discrimination as defined by section 9 of the Constitution. This section prohibits unfair discrimination based on race, gender, sex, pregnancy, marital status, ethnic and social origin, colour, sexual orientation, age, disability, religion, conscience, belief, culture, language and birth. In 2004 the SALRC included in its law reform programme an investigation into the revision of the statute book to identify provisions that are redundant, obsolete or which infringe the equality provisions of the Constitution. The focus of the statutory law revision project at present is constitutionality of legislation in view of section 9 of the Constitution, and repeal of redundant and obsolete provisions. The methodology adopted in this investigation is to review the statute book by Department - the SALRC identifies a Department, reviews the national legislation administered by that Department for constitutionality and redundancy, sets out the preliminary findings and proposals in a consultation paper and consults with that Department to verify the SALRC's preliminary findings and proposals. The next step that the SALRC undertakes is the development of a discussion paper in respect of the legislation of each Department, and upon its approval by the SALRC, it is published for general information and comment. Finally, the SALRC develops a report in respect of each Department that reflects the comment on the discussion paper and contains a draft Bill proposing amending legislation.
The provisions of Acts set out in Schedule 3 of the proposed Bill, found in the same Annexure referred to above, be amended for the reasons set out in Chapter 2 of the discussion paper.
On 14 May 2011 the SALRC considered and approved the publication of Discussion Paper 123. The SALRC invites comments and suggestions on Discussion Paper 123.