# summary

- Link: https://dearsouthafrica.co.za/dmab/summary/
- Published: 2021-07-13T20:02:29+02:00
- Author: dearSA

### STATEMENTS FROM OTHER ORGANISATIONS

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### Cape Independence Advocacy Group

### Dear Speaker,

I am writing to you on behalf of the Cape Independence Advocacy Group (CIAG) and
the seventy thousand South Africans who actively follow our work.

We wish to comment on the ‘Electoral Commissions Amendment Act, 2021’, which is 
proposed by the Democratic Alliance (DA) and was published in the Government Gazette
on 21 June 2021.

Given our mandate, our comments are made in the context of the Western Cape, although
we appreciate and respect that the constitutional rights enacted through this bill
will rightfully apply to all provinces.

This bill is essential to restoring some degree of functional democracy to the voters
of the Western Cape and we therefore unreservedly and wholeheartedly endorse it.

Through their voting behaviour, Western Cape voters have made it abundantly clear
that they do not endorse many of the policy and ideological positions of the South
African national government, but are left utterly powerless to resist them because
the voters in other South African provinces, who greatly outnumber them, hold starkly
different ideological and political opinions.

In terms of seeing their democratic will enacted, for the majority of Western Cape
voters, the democratic era has not offered much of an improvement over the apartheid
era. It is a statistical fact that, since 1994, the majority of Western Cape voters
have never been governed by the political party they voted for, and they have no
foreseeable prospect of ever being governed by the party they vote for. As such,
they cannot be said to have functional democracy.

One of the few glimmers of democratic hope Western Cape voters do have, is the provision
of Clause 127(2)(f) of the national constitution, and 37(2)(f) of the Western Cape
constitution, which allows them, at the discretion of the premier who they elected,
to have their voices heard on matters which are important to them, without being
drowned out by a national majority who fundamentally hold different views.

To deny Western Cape voters this constitutional right would be a very serious infringement
of their political rights and freedoms, and would be a clear indication that parliament
and the national government are not interested in the constitutional rights and 
democratic wishes of Western Cape voters.

We therefore call upon parliament to pass this bill at the earliest opportunity,
and without objection.

Yours Faithfully

**Phil Craig
 
(On behalf of the Cape Independence Advocacy Group)

[ Have your say on the Disaster Management Amendment Bill](https://dearsouthafrica.co.za/dmab/)

 * The purpose of the Bill is to amend the Disaster Management Act in order to amend
   the duration of a state of disaster.
 * The Bill further seeks to provide that only the National Assembly, a provincial
   legislature or a municipal council may resolve to extend a declaration of a national,
   provincial or local state of disaster respectively and for how long.
 * The Bill also provides for the requisite majorities required in the National 
   Assembly, provincial legislature and municipal council in order to extend a national,
   provincial or local state of disaster, respectively.
 * The Bill further provides that a resolution to extend a national, provincial 
   or local state of disaster may only be adopted after a public debate.
 * The Bill finally seeks to provide for oversight by the National Assembly over
   a national state of disaster, and oversight by a provincial legislature over 
   a provincial state of disaster.

MEMORANDUM OF OBJECTS

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FULL AMENDMENT BILL

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PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE MEETING

Portfolio Committee on Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, 26 May 2021.(
National Assembly), Briefing on the Disaster Management Amendment Bill [B2-2021]