| Constitution Thirteenth Amendment Act of 2007 | |
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| Parliament of South Africa | |
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| Enacted by | Parliament of South Africa |
| Enacted | 22 November 2007 |
| Assented to | 13 December 2007 |
| Commenced | 14 December 2007 |
| Legislative history | |
| Bill title | Constitution Thirteenth Amendment Bill |
| Bill citation | B24—2007 |
| Introduced by | Brigitte Mabandla,Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development |
| Introduced | 29 June 2007 |
| Amends | |
| Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996 | |
| Related legislation | |
| Twelfth Amendment | |
TheThirteenth Amendment of theConstitution of South Africa (formally theConstitution Thirteenth Amendment Act of 2007) re-enacted provisions of theTwelfth Amendment which theConstitutional Court ruled had not been validly enacted. These provisions transferred theMatatiele Local Municipality fromKwaZulu-Natal province to theEastern Cape province.
The Twelfth Amendment had redefined all provincial boundaries and consequently transferred many areas from one province to another. The community ofMatatiele, who were strongly opposed to their inclusion in the Eastern Cape, challenged the validity of the amendment before the Constitutional Court. Some residents also founded theAfrican Independent Congress as a political party. On 18 August 2006, the court handed down its decision in the case ofMatatiele Municipality and Others v President of the Republic of South Africa and Others, ruling that the transfer of Matatiele had not been validly enacted because theKwaZulu-Natal Legislature had not allowed for public participation, as required by the constitution, before approving the amendment.[1][2] The court, recognising that Parliament might well re-enact the transfer with the necessary public participation and wishing to avoid the disruption that would be caused if themunicipal elections of 1 March 2006 were invalidated in the affected area, suspended its order for eighteen months.
Parliament did indeed re-enact the provisions transferring Matatiele to the Eastern Cape, as the Thirteenth Amendment. In form, the amendment substitutes the sections of Schedule 1A to the Constitution that define the areas of the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal. TheNational Assembly passed the bill for the amendment on 20 September 2007 with 269 votes in favour.[3] After the provincial consultation process theNational Council of Provinces passed it on 22 November with all nine provinces voting in favour.[4] The act was signed byPresidentThabo Mbeki on 13 December, and was published and came into force on the following day.
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