REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA COMBINED SECOND PERIODIC REPORT UNDER THE AFRICAN CHARTER ON HUMAN AND PEOPLE`S RIGHTS and INITIAL REPORT UNDER THE PROTOCOL TO THE AFRICAN CHARTER ON THE RIGHTS OF WOMEN IN AFRICA 228. During the period under review, Parliament undertook various Taking Parliament to the People Programmes. This programme gives South Africans the opportunity to make their voices heard by participating in parliamentary processes and seeing how Parliament works. The programme brings together the National, Provincial, and Local spheres of government in order to address service delivery issues in the targeted area and is one of the vehicles used by the NCOP to conduct oversight over the executive. The NCOP’s constitutional imperatives of facilitating public participation, conducting its business in an open manner, and holding its sittings and those of its committees in public have been brought to life by the Taking Parliament to the People programme. Through this programme, the NCOP has been able to promote greater public participation in parliamentary affairs by enabling individuals and representatives of civil society to meet members of the NCOP in different parts of the country. The programme deepens awareness about the work of the NCOP and the provincial legislatures and how the public can participate in their processes. Applicable case law 146 147 229. In the Constitutional Court decision in Richter v Minister of Home Affairs146the question before the court was whether the legislative scheme as it then was, which limited the right of South African citizens who were registered as voters but who would be out of the country when the elections took place on 22 April 2009, was consistent with the Constitution. O’Regan J, writing for a unanimous court, considered the ambit and purpose of the right to vote. She emphasised its symbolic and democratic value, and the obligations the right places on both the state and the voting public. In this light, O’Regan J held that the right to vote is infringed if a registered voter is willing to take reasonable steps to exercise his or her right to vote, but is nevertheless prevented from doing so by a statutory provision. On this basis, O’Regan J held that section 33(1)(e) of the Electoral Act and the related provisions of the Regulations constitute an unjustifiable limitation of section 19 of the Constitution in restricting the classes of registered voters who are absent from the Republic on election day from participating in elections. The consequence of this conclusion was that the Court had to make an order extending the period within which those who are to be abroad on polling day may notify the Chief Electoral Officer of their intention to do so. The effect of the Court’s order was that all South African citizens who were registered voters and who would be abroad on polling day would be entitled to vote in the election for the National Assembly on 22 April provided they gave notice of their intention to do so by 27 March to the Chief Electoral Officer and identified the embassy, high commission or consulate where they intend to cast the special vote. 230. Other cases of note during the period under review include that of Merafong Demarcation Forum v President of the Republic of South Africa147 which concerned the definition of public participation and Doctors for Life International v Speaker of the 2009 (3) SA 615 (CC) 2008 (10) BCLR 968 (CC) 67