EFF flags delays in signing Bills

The EFF wants to find a way to force President Cyril Ramaphosa to sign Bills gathering dust on the Presidential desk. While Ramaphosa had made a show of signing the controversial National Health Insurance (NHI) Bill and the anticipated National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) Amendment Bill in the run-up to the elections, and more recently, the contentious Basic Education Laws Amendment (Bela) Bill, there are 17 Bills awaiting his signature. At Thursday’s meeting of the National Assembly Programming Committee, EFF MP Veronica Mente said there was no indication of how long the President's process of assenting to Bills that Parliament have passed would take. ‘We understand that he must apply his mind and get further consultations on matters, but it cannot be forever,’ Mente added. News24 reports that she said some Bills have been sent to the President two years ago, and there was no indication about what was going to happen to them. Mente added the Copyright Amendment Bill and Performers' Protection Amendment Bill had been before the legislature ‘almost since I've arrived’ at Parliament (Mente became a member in 2014). It was now going on to 10 years and ‘performers, artists, are dying poor’.