Johannesburg — FULL marks to new Public Works Minister Geoff Doidge for being brave enough, and sensible enough, to pull back two controversial pieces of legislation.

The Built Environment Professions Bill had already been rushed through the National Assembly and only needed approval from the National Council of Provinces.

Doidge, appointed only a month ago, has intervened at the 11th hour to withdraw the bill, referring it to Nedlac for debate.

To Nedlac too goes the Expropriation Bill, which Doidge's predecessor Thoko Didiza had already shelved in the face of accusations that the bill was unconstitutional.

Doidge has not only upheld the principle that key policy should be canvassed with the social partners - labour, business and community - in Nedlac. He has also done his bit to save the administration that takes office next year from inheriting a bunch of poorly conceived, ill-drafted laws that would have done irreparable damage to some key institutions.

The Built Environment Bill would abolish the statutory councils that ensure specialist self-regulation for engineers, architects and others and replace these with a single council in which the minister would be able to exercise far too much power.

The consequences could be dire, driving crucial skills out of SA and opening the way for professions such as engineering to be dumbed down. SA cannot afford such risks at this time. Doidge is to be congratulated on listening to the critics and taking rapid action. He said this week he would appoint a special adviser to look at the technical and legal problems in the bill.

He plans too to study the legal opinions on the Expropriation Bill. That's appropriate. Better legislation may be needed to enable the expropriation of land for public purposes, but this particular bill is not it. It contains some draconian provisions and would, again, have given far too much discretion to the minister of public works. Doidge, thankfully, is not about to seize such discretion.