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Nqobile Tshili, Chronicle Reporter
GOVERNMENT last Friday tabled before the National Assembly the second reading of the Police Amendment Bill to align the operations of the police with the 2013 Constitution.
In reading the Police Amendment Bill, Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ziyambi Ziyambi said the Bill had twice been tabled before Parliament and it lapsed.
He said the amendment to the act will outline how the Commissioner General of Police is appointed in line with the constitution.
“The purpose of this Bill is to amend the Police Act to achieve the following objectives; that is to ensure we align the Police Act with the Constitution and ensure that as the Constitution provides, the Commissioner General will be appointed by the President in consultation with the relevant Minister in terms of Section 221 (1) of the Constitution,” he said.
“The other issue is also to align the tenure of the Commissioner General of Police with the Constitution and also to align sections of the Police Act to Section 243 (2), Section 255 (2) and Section 259 (11) of the Constitution. I will just speak on some of the clauses.”
Minister Ziyambi said the amendments to the act will result in the term that is widely used in by law enforcement agents, “Police Force” being replaced by “Police Service” in line with the roles expected from police officers.
“We are bringing this Act to Parliament to align the Police Act with the Constitution of 2013 and like I indicated, this is a technical compliance that we redo because the Bill lapsed twice. The Committee has already done its work and Parliament had already debated on my actual Second Reading speech which had not changed and is on record in the Hansard,” said Minister Ziyambi. -@nqotshili
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Bongani Ndlovu