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19 May 1995
THE SEAT OF THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
1. I would
suggest that it is premature to call for a change in the seat of the National
assembly.
2. The Constitutional Assembly should have a clause in the New
Constitution which provides for a possible change in the seat of the
National
Assembly of the Republic of South Africa but not before 1 year after the New
Constitution the work of the Constitutional
Assembly has been promulgated under
Section 73 of Act 200 1993 and the first fully and exclusively
representative government elected installed and fully operational at
all levels.
3. The New Constitution should prescribe a procedure for
changing the seat of the National Assembly.
4. The new National
Assembly can call for changes of the seat of the National Assembly if it is so
minded at a more appropriate
time .
MOTIVATION
a. The
Constitutional Assembly is presently busy with the New Constitution and is
concerned with BASIC AND FUNDAMENTAL CONSTITUTIONAL ISSUES. A change of
the seat of the National Assembly is not a fundamental issue but a method of
changing the seat is!
b. By rushing to change the present seat before
the New Constitution has been approved introduced and fully operational at all
levels
the CA would in effect be fixing the goal posts before the playing fields
have been levelled and the " Rules of the Game " agreed
to .
c. What would
happen if the " Front Line States " want closer ties with SA in the future ? The
boundaries of RSA were fixed by imperial
powers and take no account of the close
social economic ethnic and cultural ties that existed before the " Scramble for
Africa "
as the History books describe the Colonisation of Africa in the 19th
Century.
d. There is the matter of expense too . The European Union spent an
inordinate amount of time and money in deciding the colour of
the new EU
passport . Should we not learn from their folly. A change in venue is a much
more expensive operation than the change
in the colour of a passport .
e.
The United States did not start off with Washington as its Capital and the Name
was given in tribute to the Father of the American
Nation. Perhaps in good time
a New Capital City should be laid out hopefully without the mistakes of Brasilia
to be called Mandela
in just and fitting recognition of our revered and
respected President
Seth G. Abraham [CFA.(SA), HDE, B.COM,
LL.B]
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