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CHAPTER 2

TIMESCALE FOR THIS PROJECT

2.1 Any national legislation intended to give effect to section 33 of the Constitution (the successor to section 24 of the 1993 Constitution) must be enacted by no later than 3 February 2000. (We revert to this aspect in the ensuing chapter). The appointment of a project committee only in November 1998 has left very little time for this to be accomplished. The situation is made more difficult by the extensive current legislative burdens borne by Parliament, and the interruption of the legislative programme for 1999 by the national elections. The result, it must be stressed at the outset, is that this project has necessarily had to be conducted on an expedited basis, and the Commission is grateful for the understanding and co-operation of all potential respondents in this regard.

2.2 The Commission has had to devise a schedule to report to the Minister by no later than 30 September 1999. This has meant that within a period of nine months, the discussion paper and draft Bill have had to be prepared in an initial form for the consideration of the project committee; revised in the light of the preliminary analysis of the project committee; and approved by the Working Committee of the Commission. Thereafter, necessary adaptations have had to be effected and the discussion paper printed, publicised and distributed to interested parties. A consultative opportunity - including regional workshops - was afforded for their consideration and for the submission of responses and the responses evaluated. The report was thereafter revised in the light of responses and the revised report was considered by the Commission itself.

2.3 It was for this reason that the Commission was constrained to require all written responses to be submitted by no later than 31 March 1999.

2.4 Once the responses had been considered by the project committee, and consequential revisions to the draft Bill effected, a series of regional workshops was held during early June. Respondents (and other interested parties) were invited to these. The further process is discussed in Chapter 5 below.

2.5 Thereafter the project committee effected further revisions to the draft Bill, in the light of the four workshops.

2.6 That draft was then presented to a group of international experts in the field of administrative justice for their critical appraisal. They met with the project committee at Leeds Castle in the United Kingdom for an intensive discussion in early July.

2.7 The project committee thereafter prepared the fifth revised text of a draft Bill, which was presented to the Commission for consideration at a meeting on 13 August 1999. The final draft of the Bill as approved by the Commission is attached as Annexure A.