13th Amendment Moves Forward with Tweaks

The Thirteenth Amendment is back in the spotlight. After months of debate and a flood of feedback from civil society, the amendment has cleared its ninety-day review period and is now at the House Committee stage. So, is it moving forward, or was it quietly shelved? News Five spoke with Home Affairs Minister Kareem Musa, who says the amendment is very much alive, with tweaks on the table and even some bipartisan support. Here’s more on what’s next.

 

Kareem Musa, Minister of Home Affairs

“The Thirteenth Amendment is at the House Committee stage. The ninety-day period has expired [and] as you can imagine, there has been a lot of input from civil society in terms of improvements that can be made to the amendment. And so, those are what Cabinet, we’re actually looking at those recommendations and the house committee is expected to meet in the coming weeks on that.”

 

Reporter

“So you do expect that it will proceed; it wasn’t killed in Cabinet as some thought it might. “

 

Kareem Musa

“No, it wasn’t killed, and there is actually some aspects of that amendment that even the opposition, that even civil society, I think, I think it’s the gang and gun court that they are willing to work with. And so, it’s not dead, certainly not dead, and then to tweak the other aspects of it that there are issues with, that’s what they are looking at.”