The conference on the Constitution has been a ‘win-win’ situation for all involved, says Cyril Ramaphosa. Marion Edmunds reports
Enough progress has been made at the constitutional bosberaad in Arniston for technical advisers to start drawing up the final draft of the constitution, in anticipation of meeting the May 8 deadline.
Both African National Congress and National Party negotiators were upbeat on Wednesday about the progress made at the three-day conference which was closed to the media. The conference was aimed at clearing log-jams blocking resolution of final political disputes.
“The outstanding items have been reduced to only a few,” said the NP’s chief negotiator Roelf Meyer.” There will still be a hell of a lot of work to do after we get back, but the bulk has been done.”
Meyer says he is confident that the NP has got what it wanted written into the final constitution.
“When we test ourselves against our score- card, we are on target in most instances and, in some instances, the outcome is better than we had hoped.”
Constitutional Assembly chairman Cyril Ramaphosa was similarly enthralled at the progress made, and said the conference had been a great success for all political parties.
“It defies logic,” he said, “all parties are happy with their scores — its a win-win situation for everybody.”
However, sources say that Ramaphosa has had to crack the whip from time to time to keep the momentum of decision-making going, particularly in discussions around deadlocks in the Bill of Rights.
When little progress on issues had been made by Tuesday lunch, Ramaphosa gave the Bill of Rights committee a dressing-down, saying: “Stop the bullshit.”
But it is expected that deadlocks in the Bill of Rights will persist into next week. The Right to Strike versus the Right to Lock Out in the Labour Relations Clause is still unresolved, as is the deadlock over the right to Life and the Death Penalty. While progress has been made resolving disputes around the Property clause, it is likely that debate on new formulations will continue beyond the Arniston conference.
Another outstanding issue between the ANC and the NP will be the NP’s proposal to write a mechanism into the final constitution allowing the views of minority parties to be heard at cabinet level on matters of national importance.
Meyer said these discussions would continue over the next fortnight and that it was possible that Deputy President FW de Klerk and President Nelson Mandela would be involved in negotiations at a later stage.
Mandela visited the delegates on Tuesday afternoon “to inspire them” and to receive a progress report.
It also appears that one of the formerly most heated disputes — the extent of federalism after 1999 — has been wrapped up amicably. While the Democratic Party could not be reached for comment, both ANC and NP negotiators felt that the chapters dealing with the new Senate — the Council of Provinces — and with provincial competencies were developing well. The Council of Provinces, which will provide a voice for the provinces at national level, will be considered a second house of Parliament.
Meyer also said that agreement was being reached on there being 400 MPs in the National Assembly and a maximum of 100 MPs in each provincial government. That puts the number of provincial and national MPs at more than a thousand.