Secretary Xolile George’s priority is to restore Parliament as ‘the heartbeat for the health of the nation’

20 Sep 2022

Three days short of 100 days in office, Secretary to Parliament Xolile George is hopeful National Treasury has been persuaded to allocate money for the rebuilding of the fire-ravaged National Assembly. It’s just one of the priorities he has to juggle while getting to know the job, and the people, at the national legislature.

That meeting with National Treasury happened on Friday and ran over the scheduled time. About R1-billion is needed for rebuilding the National Assembly and the repairs to other parts of the buildings, including the Old Assembly wing, after the 2 January fire, according to estimates presented to Parliament’s financial management oversight committee.

Money is also needed to find alternate venues to ensure legislators can resume meeting in person in pursuit of holding to account the executive, as well as the oversight and legislative agenda of the “people’s assembly” as the Secretary to Parliament, Xolile George, refers to the national legislature.

“We had a discussion with National Treasury … and we have made our point to them about the urgency to attend to the decision to fix what we all know has happened in terms of the fire damage,” he told Daily Maverick in an interview on Tuesday.

“We are very hopeful, come the Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement. We are hopeful, as Parliament, the minister of finance will make a determination about the rands and cents for the reconstruction of Parliament.”

George is much more definite about what’s within his control, such as urgent steps to stabilise the administration — a chief financial officer and a head of Parliamentary Protection Services, without permanent appointments since 2019 and 2015, respectively, will be in place in March 2023.

Also pressing is boosting Parliament’s legal services division, which has only six legal advisers and four legislative drafters to assist 40-plus committees.

Other vacancies include the serjeant-at-arms and various senior posts across the administration. It’s a sign of the choppy waters at the national legislature that’s been headed by an acting Secretary to Parliament for five years since mid-2017.

George is diplomatic, describing Parliament as “an institution that has operated outside stable mode for quite some time” and, faced with a shrinking budget, also as without the necessary financial predictability.

“Sadly, the institution is quite silo-orientated in a big way. Each unit operates on its own. You don’t have a nerve centre to bring it together.”

It is important that everyone in Parliament can cohere around a common shared understanding. People need to be updated about the team, an individual’s place in the team, work performance and the institution overall, says George.

“It’s important for an organisation to create the space for conversation,” he says, recounting a general meet-and-greet with staff in his second week at the Imbizo Centre followed by, let’s call it sectoral, meetings with cleaners, catering staff and, on Friday, the Parliamentary Protection Services and drivers.

“I undertook to be intentional in my leadership, to meet the Jack and Jills, for the lack of a better word, the Jack and Jills that make this institution matter.”

Some of those conversations were bruising, like being informed that when staff raised issues of cheap uniforms, they were told to lump it. Some of it was less painful.

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An intervention plan

“Those issues, my ears have received these matters. I need to put in place an intervention plan,” says George in reference to the overall operational review that is under way.

It’s that get-down-to-listen approach which is being appreciated in the parliamentary precinct. That he has “an open mind”, “he listens” and seems prepared to act to resolve issues, is how some have put it. And with that approach, a budding optimism is emerging that the turbulence of the past few years can be smoothed out.

Parliament has not had a permanently appointed Secretary — the national legislature’s top administrator — since mid-2017. In the past decade, two have been summarily dismissed for misconduct — in September 2012, Zingile Dingane was sacked in connection with a salary advance for a fence. In October 2019, Gengezi Mgidlana, after two years’ suspension and disciplinary hearings, was dismissed with immediate effect for financial misconduct and other offences.

George himself is not an uncontroversial appointment, even before the motion recommending him for the job from 15 June was debated and approved in both Houses of Parliament.

By then it was on public record that National Assembly Speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula and the union Nehawu had pushed for George to take up the post, which would in effect come with an approximately 50% pay cut to the R5.8-million salary, bonus and allowances package he was receiving as CEO of the South African Local Government Association (Salga).

At the 1 June debate in the National Assembly, the opposition raised concerns about cadre deployment — sharply by the DA, EFF and Freedom Front Plus, with others more moderate.

Not assisting matters of public perception was when ANC MP Bhekizizwe Radebe referred to George as “comrade George” in the debate as others also had done in different settings.

“We say that as the ANC we know comrade George very well, as an organisation. We travel with him during the challenging times since the inauguration of the local government sphere…” said the ANC MP.

On Tuesday, George’s response when asked about that was: “Certainly, I am not comrade George. I am Secretary to Parliament.”

Finish and klaar.

It’s been eyes on the job. Almost 100 days in, it’s been unrelenting.

“It’s quite hectic. And you can imagine there are a number of pressure points that you inherit and those are running and also you deal with the shifting sands all the time.”

Other work, when not chasing down National Treasury for more allocations, not only for fire damage repairs but also to get Parliament’s budget right, is about enabling and empowering staff to meet expectations.

Getting institutional policy right, or just getting policy done, is another priority. George brandishes a black book with his title and name in gold embossed letters as one example of what goes for policy. Much of it is in draft form, not readily accessible and possibly outdated.

Relooking at policy as an enabler is another priority, alongside ensuring the capacity of policy and content advisers and legislative drafters to ensure Parliament, as the representative of South Africans, can and does do its job.

“There may be a need for us to rethink the operating arrangements of Parliament. There may be a need for us to rethink capacities that exist to make sure the institution is able to respond to changing conditions.”

And the report of the State Capture Commission chaired by Chief Justice Raymond Zondo pointed out the importance of executive oversight, which had not been done very well.

“How do we then rethink your approach to performance oversight? What are the ingredients for members [of Parliament] to discharge this responsibility? The most important is the capacity of your team to conduct policy research.”

Talking “operational efficiencies” and “cost-saving measures” in the context of South Africa’s tough economic circumstances, George is focused on Parliament’s constitutional oversight and other responsibilities.

“This is a fairly complex institution and it is an important institution in terms of our constitutional construct. It is sitting at the apex of our governance structure,” says George. “It would naturally be a heartbeat for the health of the nation.”

As Secretary to Parliament, the top administrator has his work cut out for him. DM

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An intervention plan