The Cabinet decided this week that a new election law will be on the statute books before Parliament goes into recess towards the end of the year.
The ministers also decided to establish electoral procedures with an ordinary statute and not a constitutional amendment.
The Cabinet decision comes after weeks of legislative paralysis over a disagreement between the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Ministry of Justice and Constitional Development amid uncertainty about which should drive the process.
On Wednesday the Cabinet decided that both were responsible and it urged them to proceed as a matter of urgency.
The parliamentary home affairs committee last month asked both ministers to brief MPs on the matter. The committee was concerned that passage of the law would run into severe time pressures if a draft Bill was not forthcoming.
The new law will extend the proportional representation system for the 2004 poll.
According to constitutional provisions the system whereby voters cast their ballot for a party that compiles lists of its candidates for public office came to an end after the 1999 elections.
There is no news yet on an election date, which will be proclaimed by President Thabo Mbeki.
However, it is widely expected that either the polling day or the inauguration of the new government will be timed to coincide with the 10th anniversary of the first democratic elections on April 27 1994.
The government is planning a series of events before that date and a major celebration on the anniversary itself.
The Cabinet has established an inter-ministerial task team to plan these celebrations to mark what it refers to as ”the first decade of freedom”.
The team includes Minister in the Presidency Essop Pahad, Minister of Arts and Culture Ben Ngubane and Minister of Education Kader Asmal.