DA leader, Helen Zille says the proposed Traditional Courts Bill will decimate what remains of the Eastern Cape's developmental prospects.
Speaking at the the party's Eastern Cape Congress in Grahamstown, which included 19 elected DA councilors from Transkei on Saturday, Zille said the Traditional Courts Bill would condemn millions of poor rural women to permanent subjugation in a rural fiefdom.
She warned that the bill would grant traditional chiefs the power to interpret the law as they see fit.
Chiefs will "effectively be policeman, prosecutor, jury and judge at the same time".
Zille said she doubted if the proposed law would be constitutional, but claimed it was the greatest tragedy for the Eastern Cape.
Tradional courts were a compromise struck up at the Codesa negotiations in 1993.
She said President Zuma is under pressure to finally enact a law and keep the political support of the chiefs ahead of the ANC elective conference in Mangaung later this year.
