Dear Honourable Dr Koornhof

During a National Assembly Programme Committee meeting on 5 September, you appeared not to have heard Honourable Ntombovuyo Mente-Nkuna's question about the status of the Copyright Amendment Bill, which she said at the time "affects people's lives directly".

The honourable member clearly stated that "we need to know how do we move from there". Yet your rather generalised response simply repeated what the honourable member had already mentioned (which was that, at the time, about 20 Bills were waiting to be signed into law), You also briefly outlined the process followed by the President in determining the constitutionality of all Bills awaiting his assent. You made no reference to the Copyright Amendment Bill or concerns expressed by the honourable member about the many years it has taken to reach this point.

As you may be aware, there is a Constitutional Court deadline by which clauses in the Bill dealing with access to copyright protected material by the blind and visually impaired should come into force. The deadline is 21 September 2024, three days from now. In that regard, you may find this article useful:
https://legalacademy.co.za/news/read/copyright-amendment-bill-uncertainty-abounds-as-gnu-treads-water. In addition, this video clip of an interview with Blind SA's Christo de Klerk illustrates how important the deadline is to certain stakeholders: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-r3MlbLamkg.

If Parliament has approached the Court for an extension, perhaps it would be prudent for the Presidency and/or Parliament to issue a media statement announcing this - and for your colleagues in the committee to be appraised of the latest developments when they meet on 19 September 2024.

Sincerely
Pam Saxby