The Speaker of the National Assembly made her maiden speech when she tabled the sixth Parliament’s Budget Vote, which outlined its strategic objectives in this current financial year. She articulated its vision of a Parliament that will not flinch from holding the executive accountable, and responsive to the needs of ordinary South Africans. She promised that the sixth Parliament will do everything in its power to uphold accountability and responsiveness in improving the lives of South Africans.
Her debate located Parliament at the centre of our country’s state machinery and emphasised that it should not be treated as a lesser conduit of the state.
To bring context to her debate, she once again reminded South Africans of the societal role of Parliament, as she declared “we are mandated to deal with the imperfections of the past, not to dwell on it but to bring about stability and growth to promote the principles and values of the South Africa we want”.
Accountability was the rallying point of her debate. “As guardians of people’s rights, we need to pay attention on the frequency of service delivery and to ensure that the money made available to the executive has a positive impact on all South Africans. As such, this Parliament must follow the rands and cents and hold government accountable and there must be consequences for lack thereof,” she emphasised.
According to her, the sixth Parliament must embrace this challenge if it were to succeed in its “fight against the triple challenges of poverty, inequality and unemployment”.
But most of all, there is a need for Members of Parliament to re-evaluate “why are we public representatives. What resources are at our disposal, how can we utilise them to enhance our law-making mechanisms and to help us to understand our budget processes, and to uphold our mandate as custodian of people’s rights for a better quality of life and service delivery”.
Reflecting on the legacy report of the High Level Panel that is before it (Parliament) and expected to act on it, the Speaker promised that the current Parliament “will act on the recommendations and resolutions raised in this report”.
In keeping with its mission and vision of being a people’s Parliament, the Speaker stated that it will reinvigorate its Public Participation Model to “gauge its effectiveness in how it represents the interest of the people”.
She, though, mentioned the maintenance of trust, confidence and high level of integrity by the sixth Parliament as one of her chief priorities. And he Members of Parliament should act exemplary in this regard. “Members are expected to declare their financial interests. And there are ethical conducts that Members of Parliament are expected to adhere to, and the breaching of such must receive attention.”
One of the areas that her administration would focus on is to enhance the research model and capacity of parliamentary staff. “The current research content output is not adequate. The parliamentary administration is reorganising it to bring about subject experts to enhance the oversight capabilities of the parliamentary committees.”
Tied this, is Members of Parliament’s capability to scrutinise the budget process, to derive socio-economic benefits from it. “We must be relentless in conducting our oversight and that must be utilised effectively and efficiently.”
The Speaker was at pains to explain that the sixth Parliament asked for R3 billion to undertake its strategic mission, but instead received R2.6 billion. She grimaced when explaining the effect of this shortfall on the wok of Parliament, safe to say it would have “a bearing on the running of Parliament”.
By Abel Mputing
16 July 2019
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