President Cyril Ramaphosa calls for Joint Sitting of Parliament on gender-based violence and femicide issues
17 September 2019
President Cyril Ramaphosa has called for a Joint Sitting of the National Assembly and National Council of Provinces to focus the attention of elected public representatives and the nation at large on the crisis of gender-based violence and femicide.
The President has in terms of Section 84(2)(d) of the Constitution, read with Rule 7(1)(b) of the Joint Rules of Parliament called for a Joint Sitting of Parliament for Wednesday, 18 September 2019.
The Constitution empowers the President to summon Parliament to an extraordinary sitting to conduct special business.
In a letter to Parliament dated Thursday, 12 September 2019, President Ramaphosa provided the following motivation for his call: “In the last two weeks South Africa’s approach to violence perpetrated against women has changed fundamentally.