The National Council of Provinces rounded off a busy three days of legislating on Thursday by belting out their approval of the bills which give effect to Finance Minister Trevor Manuel's Medium Term Budget Statement and provide legal force for the changes he made in his February budget.

The house passed two Revenue Laws Amendment Bills, a Finance Bill, Eskom's Loan Special Appropriation Bill, the bill which allows government servants to count interrupted service towards their pensions, and finally, after a break for lunch, they passed the Adjustments Appropriation Bill which provided the cash for expenditure which was unforeseen and unavoidable at the time of the February budget.

DA divides house

The Democratic Alliance divided the house when it came to consideration of individual votes only for Defence, Safety and Security and Transport. Otherwise the votes were passed with the ease of spitting out grape pips.

The DA lost the divisions by 29 votes to nine or ten each time.

The council will return next week on Wednesday to consider the Scorpions bills and the constitutional amendment bill that abolishes floor crossing in the national and provincial legislatures.

Then, unless there are any disputes over the changes they have made to bills sent to them for concurrence by the National Assembly, they will be home free until next year, either to electioneer in their constituencies, to plot for or against the Congress of the People, or to mend fences with their families through the festive season.

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