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Geomatics Profession Act, 2013 (Act No. 19 of 2013)

Chapter 5 : Professional Conduct

23. Disciplinary hearing

 

 

(1) The Registrar performs the administrative functions necessary to support the functioning of a disciplinary tribunal.

 

(2)

(a) The disciplinary tribunal may, for the purposes of a hearing, summons the person charged or subpoena any person—
(i) who may be able to give material information concerning the subject of the hearing; or
(ii) who is suspected or believed to have in his or her possession or custody or under his or her control any book, document or object which has any bearing on the subject of the hearing,

to appear before the disciplinary tribunal at the time and place specified in the subpoena, to be questioned or to produce a book, document or object.

(b) A summons or subpoena issued in terms of paragraph (a)—
(i) must be in the form prescribed by the Minister in consultation with the Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development;
(ii) must be signed by the chairperson of the disciplinary tribunal or, in his or her absence, any member of the disciplinary tribunal assigned by the chairperson; and
(iii) must be served on the person concerned, either personally or by sending it by registered mail.

 

(3) The disciplinary tribunal may retain a book, document or object produced in terms of subsection (2)(a)(ii) for the duration of the hearing.

 

(4) The chairperson of the disciplinary tribunal may call upon and administer an oath to, or take an affirmation from, any witness.

 

(5) A witness—
(a) may request that the names of the members of the disciplinary tribunal be made available to him or her;
(b) may not—
(i) refuse to be sworn in or to make an affirmation; or
(ii) knowingly make a false statement or give a false answer; and
(c) may not without sufficient cause fail to—
(i) attend the hearing, including any postponed hearing at the place and time specified in a subpoena or by the chairperson of the disciplinary tribunal, and must remain in attendance until excused from further attendance by such chairperson;
(ii) answer all questions lawfully put to him or her, fully and satisfactorily to the best of his or her knowledge; or
(iii) produce any book, document or object in his or her possession or custody or under his or her control, which he or she is required to produce.

 

(6) No person may unlawfully prevent another person from complying with a subpoena or from giving evidence or producing a book, document or object which he or she is required to give or produce.

 

(7) The law of privilege in relation to evidence, including the production of a book, document or object, applicable in a civil proceeding in a court of law, applies with the changes required by the context to a proceeding before a disciplinary tribunal.

 

(8) A record of evidence which was presented to a tribunal in a prior hearing which is relevant to a charge before a subsequent tribunal, is admissible in a hearing before such subsequent tribunal without further evidence being led, if the chairperson of such prior tribunal certifies it to be a full and true record and that the prior proceedings were lawful and procedurally fair.

 

(9) If the improper conduct with which the registered person is charged, amounts to an offence of which he or she has been convicted by a court of law, a certified copy of the record of his or her trial and conviction by that court is, on the identification of the registered person as the person referred to in the record, sufficient proof of the commission by him or her of that offence, unless the conviction has been set aside by a competent court.

 

(10) The Minister may, in consultation with the Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development, prescribe procedures not inconsistent with this Act, for the effective performance of the functions of a disciplinary tribunal.

 

(11) A person appearing before the disciplinary tribunal on account of a charge of improper conduct is entitled to legal representation at the hearing.