Traditional Courts Bill – thumbs up or down?

The Traditional Courts Bill has received a thumbs-up in the Eastern Cape, according to Co-operative Governance & Traditional Affairs Portfolio Committee chair Thabo Matiwane. However, a Daily Dispatch report notes others have voiced strong opposition to it, including the Inyanda National Land Movement (INLM), which says it is patriarchal. Public hearings in the Eastern Cape into whether the Bill should be signed into law or not were supposed to have ended on 7 November, but Matiwane said they had been extended. No deadlines have been announced. INLM organiser Nomonde Phindani said: ‘We oppose the Bill because of the patriarchy entrenched in it. We want women to be empowered and not oppressed in the name of culture and tradition.’ The Bill, introduced in 2008 and shelved in 2012, was recently resuscitated, with its crux being strengthening and reforming traditional courts. Those opposed to the Bill in its present form say it is the ANC’s way of ingratiating itself with traditional councils as a quid pro quo for endorsement at election time, and will entrench servitude in a democratic state. But Matiwane said: ‘The feedback has been overwhelming, to the extent that people are taking this opportunity to show respect to the traditional way of doing things, but they have also raised concerns about how, as government, we must help restore the dignity of the traditional authorities, including making these traditional courts functional in a manner they have not been before.’