The Traditional Courts Bill is in its final stages of enactment. Despite 18 years of heroic challenge by the people who stand most to be affected by its implementation, this deeply flawed legislation appears to be a done deal approval by the National Assembly is imminent and a vote in the Justice Portfolio Committee scheduled for next month looks set to have the full support of ANC members of Parliament.
Previously, determined resistance by rural women and civil society groups led to a stalemate over the bill in the National Council of Provinces. In 2014, it secured a dubious place in history when it became the only bill to have been blocked by a majority of provinces despite sustained pressure from central government. Caution over the bill arose after an ANC minister and a former ANC secretary-general, both women, spoke out against it – then Minister of Women Lulu Xingwana, who lost her job thereafter, and Cheryl Carolus.