Chapter 6: Provinces
Privilege
117.
(1)
(2)
(3)
Members of a provincial legislature and the province’s permanent delegates to the
National Council of Provinces—
(a) have freedom of speech in the legislature and in its committees, subject to its
rules and orders; and
(b) are not liable to civil or criminal proceedings, arrest, imprisonment or damages
for—
(i) anything that they have said in, produced before or submitted to the
legislature or any of its committees; or
(ii) anything revealed as a result of anything that they have said in,
produced before or submitted to the legislature or any of its committees.
Other privileges and immunities of a provincial legislature and its members may be
prescribed by national legislation.
Salaries, allowances and benefits payable to members of a provincial legislature are
a direct charge against the Provincial Revenue Fund.
Public access to and involvement in provincial legislatures
118.
(1)
(2)
A provincial legislature must—
(a) facilitate public involvement in the legislative and other processes of the
legislature and its committees; and
(b) conduct its business in an open manner, and hold its sittings, and those of its
committees, in public, but reasonable measures may be taken—
(i) to regulate public access, including access of the media, to the legislature
and its committees; and
(ii) to provide for the searching of any person and, where appropriate, the
refusal of entry to, or the removal of, any person.
A provincial legislature may not exclude the public, including the media, from a
sitting of a committee unless it is reasonable and justifiable to do so in an open and
democratic society.
Introduction of Bills
119.
Only members of the Executive Council of a province or a committee or member of a
provincial legislature may introduce a Bill in the legislature; but only the member of the
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