The Chairperson of the National Council of Provinces (NCOP), Mr Amos Masondo, presented the 2019/20 Budget Vote of Parliament to the NCOP, saying he was presenting it under a challenging economic climate. Based on that, he urged delegates to the NCOP to balance increasing legitimate demands of the people, with decreasing financial resources.
He said this period instructs that while seeking to satisfy the needs of the people, the delegates to the NCOP must do so in a manner that is prudent. Furthermore, he said: “In a way that seeks to ensure that we manage the finances of this institution efficiently and in a sustainable manner. This will determine whether we will be able to achieve more with the increasingly limited resources that are at our disposal.”
He said the South African economy, like the economies of other countries in the world, still faces slow, if not sluggish, growth. As a result, the country has to contend with stubborn high unemployment rate, poverty and inequality. “It is within these difficult economic constraints that we have to consider the budget allocation to Parliament,” stressed Mr Masondo.
According to Mr Masondo, Parliament is quite cognisant of the fact that the harsh economic realities affect, among other things, the youth who are at the receiving end of the high unemployment rate and are affected by other social ills, like drug abuse.
Mr Masondo reiterated the importance of the principle of cooperative governance, appealing to the delegates to the NCOP, as elected representatives, to be preoccupied with this at all times, to be driven by the former President Nelson Mandela’s instruction to the Members of Parliament on the occasion of the adoption of the Constitution, that they must be preoccupied with “how to cooperate in the service of the people, rather than competing for power, which otherwise belongs not to us, but to the people”.
He told the delegates to the NCOP that the NCOP, National Assembly, provincial legislatures and municipal councils must not compete. Instead, he said, these structures must join hands to ensure accountable and transparent government that is responsive to the needs of the people, and gives true meaning to the notion of government by the people under the Constitution.
He said it is the NCOP which must harness this relationship among the three spheres of government, to ensure the eradication of the triple challenges of poverty, inequality and unemployment. “It is this character that should distinguish the National Council of Provinces from other legislative bodies.”
Mr Masondo said the time for speeches and empty promises is over and that Parliament has made good policies and passed good laws in the 25 years of democracy. “What we have not done well, however, as the Legislative Sector, has been to ensure that the systematic implementation of these laws and policies for the benefit of our people,” reiterated Mr Masondo.
He urged the delegates to the NCOP to use all the tools of oversight to ensure delivery of services to the people. “Oversight activities, motions, questions to the executive and debates must be aimed at holding the executive accountable, on the basis of the announcements made during the policy debates. More time, therefore, needs to be allocated to oversight,” he said.
On law-making, Mr Masondo said while it is one of Parliament’s primary functions, but consensus has emerged that Parliament must focus its attention on the implementation of those laws that have been passed since the dawn of our democracy.
He said there might be a need for new laws that are necessary to take democracy further. Those must be well considered, and not be considered in haste.
Although Parliament requested an amount of R3.1 billion from the National Treasury as budget estimates, it received R2.7 billion, and as a result, according to Mr Masondo, Parliament has a shortfall of R394 million, which has a direct bearing on how Parliament will be run in the 2019/20 financial year.
By Mava Lukani
17 July 2019
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