Parliament is the legislative authority of South Africa, and makes the laws that govern our country. It consists of two houses. The National Assembly has 400 Members of Parliament (MP) representing the different political parties in proportion to the number of people who voted for them. The National Council of Provinces (NCOP) has members from each of the nine provinces to ensure that provincial interests are represented in the national sphere of government. Both the National Assembly and NCOP consist of different Committees to streamline work e.g. gun control falls under the Portfolio Committee of Police in the National Assembly.

Parliament has three main functions:

• Make or change laws in accordance with the Constitution.
• Ensure service delivery by overseeing or monitoring government’s actions and spending.
• Facilitate public participation and involvement in law-making.

This is when members of the public get the opportunity to give their views to government on any matter that affects their lives. You can influence the way government makes laws.

Members of the public include South African citizens, civil society organisations, interest groups, business, trade unions and academic institutions. You have the power to make a difference!

What is an active citizen?

Being an active citizen means you are interested in improving the lives of others, questioning the way things are done and taking action to make a difference. A healthy democracy depends on active and informed citizens.

What is advocacy?

Advocacy is the ability to change things at different levels — from the personal to the political — and from the local to the national level. Advocacy can take on many forms and mainly involves building support for your cause. This can include talking to the media, grassroots mobilisation, networking, coalition-building and lobbying (persuading) policy makers to change laws and policies.

How laws are made

Understanding how laws are made can help you get involved in influencing the law-making process.

How civil society won the battle for strict gun controlSouth

Africans worked tirelessly to ensure that the Firearms Control Act contained clauses that would reduce access to guns and prevent gun violence. Opposing this were many pro-gun organisations like gun dealers’ associations, gun manufacturers, gun owners, hunters and pro-gun lobby groups.

The Gun Control Alliance (GCA) was the driving force behind the push for stricter gun control. It consisted of 450 members including business, health, human rights, religious, women and youth organisations.

The motto 'one message many voices' was the foundation of the GCA. The Gun Control Charter, a list of minimum demands to be included in South Africa's new gun law helped guide the ‘one message’. Once the Charter was finalised, it was publicised — in newspaper articles and radio shows, in pamphlets and at meetings — for endorsement. In this way many different voices were raised in support of stricter gun control.

When the Firearms Control Bill was published for comment, members of the GCA made written submissions in which they described their solutions to gun violence. While the Gun Control Charter helped guide submissions, often these solutions went much further e.g. calling for the age limit for gun ownership to be raised from 16 to 25 years, while the Charter called for 18 years.

What is a submission?

Making a submission is a powerful opportunity for you or any other member of the public to propose changes on any matter being considered by Parliament.

• It is the presentation of views or opinions on legislation under consideration.
• It can be presented in any language.
• It is usually in written form, but can be presented in the form of an oral submission at a public hearing.

The more submissions that are sent, the greater chance of influencing legislation.

How to write a submission

Introduction

• Are you presenting your own views in this submission? If so, what is your name and contact details? Very briefly (in one or two sentences) describe what you do. Describe why you are interested in making a submission on the Bill.
• If you are presenting your organisation’s view, what is the name and contact details of your organisation? Very briefly (in one or two sentences) describe what your organisation does. How many members does your organisation have, or what constituency does it serve? Describe why your organisation is interested in making a submission on the Bill.

Overview
Overall, do you think that the Bill is necessary and important? Do you support the Bill or oppose it?

Detailed Comments

• Are there specific comments you want to make?
• Do you very strongly support specific sections of the Bill?
• Or strongly oppose specific sections?
• Are there matters which have been left out?

Raise the points that you believe are most important. Give background to the problems you raise and if you refer to a particular section of the Bill, give the number to make reading your submission easy.

Request to address public hearings
If you or your organisations would like to give oral testimony during the public hearings on the Bill, request this in a cover letter that accompanies your submission. The letter should have the details of a contact person.

Closure
Thank the person/ committee for considering your submission.