Marion Edmonds
POLITICAL parties are anticipating a review of the Constitution next year, leading to future amendments to the text, finalised by the Constitutional Committee this week.
Both the National Party and the Democratic Party say they will take the opportunity of a review next year to change the clause which prohibits parliamentarians from crossing the floor.
Currently the Constitution does not allow party-hopping – a restriction seen by many as restricting independent political action.
All amendments would be handled by a review committee which is described in the Constitution, although the text does not specify how often it should meet.
Indications are that the text will have to be amended in any case to make possible the implementation of a number of decisions which were made in a theoretical vacuum. The Local Government chapter, in particular, will need changing as local government structures are developed by government to meet the changing needs of South African communities. “The idea is not that the committee should dribble out changes but that it should come with packages of amendments,” said Colin Eglin, the DP’s chief negotiator.
Inkatha says it is also counting on a review of the Constitution, despite having boycotted the constitutional process until the 11th hour, and having recently failed to have its way on a range of issues, including boosting provincial powers. Inkatha continued to hold bilaterals with the ANC on Thursday, in a last-minute bid to entrench traditional leaders in rural local government, despite the fact that negotiations were all but wrapped up on Monday, pending adoption by the Constitutional Committee on Friday.
IFP negotiator Walter Felgate said he was setting his sights on later constitutional changes: “That is the normal course of democracy … There would be a process of incrementally changing the Constitution,” he said.
Independent legal experts and a number of those associated with the constitutional process say they are alarmed at the ease with which politicians anticipate changing the Constitution. “We have made a constitutional pact … this cannot be regarded as any normal piece of legislation,” said an expert close to the process.