Friday, 21 July 2017 - The Speakers’ Forum had a productive and fruitful session over the past two days here in Durban, which has paved a clear way for effectively dealing with numerous challenges facing the legislative sector. As we conclude the Speakers’ Forum today, we also recognise the fiftieth anniversary of the passing of Chief Albert Luthuli, the President General of the ANC, a Nobel Peace Laureate and one of the outstanding fathers of South Africa’s liberation struggle. The Speakers’ Forum also takes place during the month of celebrating the birth of the founding President of a democratic South Africa, uTat’uNelson Mandela, during which South Africans and the whole international community are engaged in acts of kindness in emulation of the noble values and teachings of Madiba.
The Speakers' Forum is a structure of the South African legislative sector and comprises Presiding Officers of Parliament and Provincial Legislatures. At the heart of its mandate is facilitating and leading the coordination of the law making and oversight programmes of the legislatures to ensure they are continually and sufficiently responsive to their Constitutional obligations and the needs of the people.
Effective oversight over the executive in all spheres of government is essential for the realisation of the progressive laws, policies and programmes intended at improving the material conditions of our people, fight unemployment, create jobs and reduce inequality and poverty.
Only through effective and robust oversight over the executive can our people, the majority of whom are poor, benefit from efficient implementing of government's Medium Term Strategic Framework, in particular, and the National Development Plan, in general.
In this vein, the Speakers' Forum is constantly monitoring, evaluating and assessing implementation of the sector oversight model (SOM) across all the country's legislatures to ensure its effective implementation. The SOM was adopted by the Speakers' Forum in 2012 to galvanize, strengthen and reinforce the legislatures’ oversight work over the executive.
The Forum was briefed on progress with assessing the SOM implementation - the outcomes of which will assist legislatures to strengthen their oversight structures and refine policies, processes and practices necessary for them to perform their Constitutional oversight functions. The assessment is being conducted across all the legislatures and the process will conclude soon.
Linked to ongoing efforts to streamline and enhance oversight work of the legislative sector is the development of the Legislative Sector Bill, which will be tabled for processing in the near future.
The bill, which is firmly in line with the Constitutional imperatives of cooperative governance, will formalise greater cooperation, inter-legislature relations, legislative synergy and cohesion.
The legislative sector will convene a two-day International Women’s Conference on 29 and 30 August 2017 to intensify national and continental dialogue on progress made in mainstreaming issues and the development of women. The conference will attract high-powered delegates and guests, including current and former women Speakers and Presidents, Ministers and a representative of the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and Empowerment. A comprehensive build up programme, comprising a series of provincial workshops, will be launched on 14 August. The programme will culminate in a national declaration and a report for submission to the 61st UN Commission on the Status of Women Conference scheduled for early in 2018.
The Speakers’ Forum has pledged to double its efforts of building a formidable, professional and highly competent workforce that is more than capable of helping committees and Members of Parliament to provide cutting-edge oversight, law making and public participation service to our people.
The programme entails establishing competency frameworks for all jobs, skills audits and leadership and management development to enable officials to better manage a very complex and dynamic working environment in the legislative sector. The programme, that includes 17 courses for officials this time, is informed by, among others, the successes registered in an empowerment programme for Members of Parliament which produced more than 700 graduates through courses ranging from Certificates to Masters degrees.
The Speakers Forum, as a mandating agency for the High Level Panel, received and approved a request from the Panel for a short extension of the deadlines for their submission of findings and recommendations. The Speakers’ Forum established the Panel to assess the impact of key laws passed since the advent of democracy, the difference they have made in people’s quality of life and to make recommendations on what needs to be done.
The Speakers’ Forum has noted that, despite having adopted an outcomes and evidence based planning, execution, monitoring and evaluation of its core programmes, there are still major development gaps where it matters most, in people’s lives.
As an integral part of strengthening its capacity, a Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO) was established and a partnership is being forged with Stats SA to source objective, scientific and credible official data on the outputs, outcomes and impact of the work of the sector. We welcomed the presentations from these agencies today. The PBO has demonstrated the value added to the functioning of Parliament and we are working on broadening its scope and capacity to provide similar services across the legislative sector.
The legislative sector reflects the most representative arm of the state that is based on the will of the people of South Africa who, in their diversity, determine who constitutes the legislatures. The legislative sector is acutely aware that it embodies, largely directly, the highest aspirations of the people of South Africa. It is also the first to acknowledge that the ideals enunciated in the National Development Plan and the Constitution can only be addressed effectively when every sector of society throws its weight behind the development drive. That is why we opened a platform for meaningful engagement of philanthropic organisations that, among others, champion social justice and development of people, especially at the grassroots level. Our intentions are to enhance the reach and impact of our collective interventions that are aimed at improving people’s lives. We have begun and will sustain the engagement of various development foundations operating in South Africa.
We are greatly honoured by the levels and quality of engagements we have witnessed during this Speakers’ Forum meeting. Our hopes for a better future have received a shot in the arm, a new inspiration and a commitment to spare neither effort nor energy to realise the ideals outlined in the National Development Plan, our vision for the South Africa we love.
ISSUED BY THE PARLIAMENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA ON BEHALF OF THE SPEAKERS’ FORUM OF THE LEGISLATIVE SECTOR OF SOUTH AFRICA
Enquiries: Moloto Mothapo 082 370 6930
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