Constitution Amendment Act, 1982

by enacted by the Parliament of South Africa

Act

To amend the Republic of South Africa Constitution Act, 1961, so as to increase the number of deputy ministers that may be appointed under section 21; to make special provision for the representation of Walvis Bay in the House of Assembly and in the Provincial Council of the Cape of Good Hope; to render service with any institution, council or body contemplated in section 84 (1) (f) a disability for membership of the House of Assembly or a provincial council; to further regulate the exemption from the provisions of section 55 (d) on the grounds of membership of certain bodies; to provide that an elected member of the executive committee of a province may be removed from office by the provincial council; and to remove the disability for membership of the President’s Council relating to an office of profit under the Republic; to empower the State President to repeal section 40A, by which the said special provision is made; and to provide for matters connected therewith.

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(English text signed by the State President.)
(Assented to 23 June 1982.)

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Be it enacted by the State President and the House of Assembly of the Republic of South Africa, as follows:―

Amendment of section 21 of Act 32 of 1961, as amended by section 1 of Act 65 of 1962 and section 12 of Act 101 of 1980.

1. Section 21 of the Republic of South Africa Constitution Act, 1961 (hereinafter referred to as the principal Act), is hereby amended by the substitution for paragraph (b) of subsection (1) of the following paragraph:

“(b)

Not more than [six] nine persons may be appointed under this subsection.”

Insertion of section 40A in Act 32 of 1961.

2. The principal Act is hereby amended by the insertion after section 40 of the following section:

“Representation of Walvis Bay.

40A. (1) In this section ‘Walvis Bay’ means the port and settlement of Walvis Bay mentioned in the Walfish Bay and St John’s River Territories Annexation Act, 1884 (Act No. 35 of 1884), of the Cape of Good Hope, and includes the territory surrounding it and bounded as described in the said Act.

(2) As from the commencement of section 2 of the Constitution Amendment Act, 1982, and notwithstanding anything to the contrary in this Act contained―

(a)		Walvis Bay shall cease to be a part of the electoral division of Green Point, and the description of that electoral division as made known by Proclamation No. 187 of 1980 is hereby amended by the deletion of paragraph (a) thereof;
(b)		Walvis Bay shall under that name be an electoral division of the Republic in the province of the Cape of Good Hope, and shall continue to exist as such electoral division, separate from and additional to the electoral divisions into which the rest of the Republic and that province have been divided, as at the said commencement, in terms of section 42 read with paragraph (a) of this subsection, or are divided, at any time thereafter, in terms of that section as applied by subsection (3) of this section;
(c)		the House of Assembly shall be composed of the members provided for in section 40 and a member for Walvis Bay, who shall be directly elected by persons entitled to vote at an election of such a member in Walvis Bay; and
(d)		Walvis Bay shall, for the purposes of section 69 (1), the provisions of the Electoral Act, 1979 (Act No. 45 of 1979), and, unless it is clearly inappropriate, the provisions of any other law, be deemed to be delimited as an electoral division under this Act or the relevant provisions thereof, as the context may require.

(3) In the application of sections 42 and 43 of this Act with reference to a division of the Republic, after the commencement of section 2 of the Constitution Amendment Act, 1982, into the number of electoral divisions specified in subsection (1) of the first-mentioned section―

(a)		Walvis Bay shall be deemed not to be part of the Republic or the province of the Cape of Good Hope; and
(b)		the voters in Walvis Bay in terms of the current voters’ list, duly corrected up to the relevant date contemplated in subsection (1) of the said section 43, shall be deemed not to be voters in the province of the Cape of Good Hope,

but a reference to the relevant particulars of Walvis Bay, together with the number of voters therein as determined for the purposes of paragraph (b) of this subsection, shall be submitted to the State President by the commission constituted under subsection (1) of the said section 42 to make the relevant division and made known by the State President as provided in section 44, as if Walvis Bay had been delimited as an electoral division by that commission.”.

Amendment of section 55 of Act 32 of 1961, as amended by section 20 of Act 101 of 1969, section 20 of Act 102 of 1972, section 22 of Act 62 of 1973, section 1 of Act 99 of 1979 and section 22 of Act 101 of 1980.

3. Section 55 of the principal Act is hereby amended―

(a)

by the insertion after paragraph (c) of the following paragraph:

“(cA)

is an officer or other employee in the service of any institution, council or body contemplated in section 84 (1) (f); or”; and

(b)

by the substitution for subparagraph (vi) of paragraph (d) of the following subparagraph:

“(vi)

a member of any council, committee, board or similar body established by or under any law, who receives no payment in respect of his services on such council, committee, board or body in excess of an allowance at a rate not exceeding the amount determined by the Minister of Finance by notice in the Gazette from time to time for each day on which he renders such services, any reimbursement of travelling expenses and subsistence expenses incurred by him in the course of such services and an allowance in respect of entertaining by him in connection with such services;”.

Amendment of section 76 of Act 32 of 1961, as amended by section 1 of Act 22 of 1963, section 2 of Act 64 of 1963 and section 32 of Act 101 of 1980.

4. Section 76 of the principal Act is hereby amended by the substitution for subsection (2) of the following subsection:

“(2) A member of the executive committee other than the administrator shall hold office until the constitution of an executive committee in terms of subsection (1) after a general election, unless he is removed from office sooner by a resolution of the provincial council.”.

Amendment of section 103 of Act 32 of 1961, as inserted by section 34 of Act 101 of 1980.

5. Section 103 of the principal Act is hereby amended by the insertion at the end of paragraph (c) of the word “or”, the deletion of the word “or” at the end of paragraph (d) and the deletion of paragraph (e).

First election of representatives in Walvis Bay.

6. For the purposes of the first election in the electoral division of Walvis Bay of a member of the House of Assembly in terms of section 40A of the principal Act as inserted by section 2 of this Act and a member of the Provincial Council of the Cape of Good Hope in terms of sections 68 and 69 of the principal Act read with the said section 40A―

(a)		the seats in question shall be deemed to have become vacant on the date determined under section 7 (2) of this Act;
(b)		notices as contemplated in section 188 (2) of the Electoral Act, 1979 (Act No. 45 of 1979), shall be deemed to have been published in respect of the vacancies in the Gazette and in the Official Gazette of the said province; and
(c)		the voters’ list for the electoral division of Walvis Bay shall be prepared as if the voters’ list for polling district No. 1 of the electoral division of Green Point, as it existed immediately before the said date, had at all relevant times before that date been a voters’ list for the electoral division of Walvis Bay.

Short title and commencement.

7. (1) This Act shall be called the Constitution Amendment Act, 1982.

(2) Sections 2 and 6 shall come into operation on a date to be fixed by the State President by proclamation in the Gazette.