The Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities has inquired into the feasibility of a committee Bill to amend the National Council on Gender Based Violence Act.

The request was made through Parliament’s Legal Services with the aim of determining what provisions in the Act require amendments to ensure greater clarity regarding the council's scope, mandate, and functions.

The Act established the council to lead the fight against gender-based violence and femicide. It was signed into law on May 24, 2024, and aims to create a coordinated, strategic, and accountable approach to eliminating GBV.

Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities chairperson Liezl van der Merwe said the committee wanted to get more clarity regarding, among other things, the mandate of the body, which was why it requested Parliament's Legal Services to appear before it for engagement on the National Council on Gender Based Violence.

Van der Merwe highlighted concern over the remuneration of civil society organisations that will be part of the Council.

She also expressed committee concerns around the proposed 24-member secretariat to serve in the Council, arguing that it might be bloated.

Parliament’s Legal Services’ advocate Charmaine van der Merwe said she was of the view that the amendments that the committee was seeking were technical in nature, and where there were substantive amendments, those would be non-contentious.

Contentious matters, she pointed out, are Bills such as the National Health Insurance.  

“The Bill that the committee envisages might be a difference of opinion on what it should say, but it's not contentious in the sense that it is likely to be faced with the public outcries. I think that the proposed amendments are probably a solution that can be executed by way of a committee Bill,” she said.