The ANC caucus lekgotla thinks about where, and how, it sees Parliament

The post-May 2019 Parliament – officially known as the 6^th Parliament – has been slow to get going. That’s on public record, as are political hiccups such as ministers being Awol from a recent scheduled members’ statement slot in the House, which required Deputy President David “DD” Mabuza’s written undertaking, as leader of government business, it would not happen again.

Between MPs being sworn in on 22 May to today, there’s been delays as the governing ANC factions haggled over positions in both Cabinet and parliamentary committees – ANC Secretary-General Ace Magashule clinched the appointments – a mad rush over two weeks to meet the statutory deadline of the Budget to be adopted by end of July, two one-week sessions of induction, a three-week recess and a week of committees being briefed by departments and entities on what they actually did.

Committees have now started dealing with substantive oversight and legislative matters, but it’s been haphazard. Parliamentary support, like content advisers and researchers, is available but several committee chairpersons who used to be ministers or deputy ministers appear somewhat uncomfortable switching from an executive mindset to one of scrutiny and oversight.

Some MPs voluntarily have limited themselves from asking questions. Or simply have not asked relevant question of the officials appearing before them. Often it appeared MPs were unprepared, and officials take advantage of that.

It took some gerrymandering, and a week’s postponement, to have ANC MP Mathole Mothshekga elected chairperson of the ad hoc committee that will process the constitutional amendment to allow for expropriation without compensation. By several accounts, the sole ANC MP who pitched up for the initial meeting two weeks ago realised no fellow ANC MP would pitch – and left the meeting, so breaking the required quorum.

That the ANC MPs have been disorganised was acknowledged by several Daily Maverick spoke to. “We have been all over the show,” said one, while another indicated concern over “waffling in public”.

Word in the parliamentary corridors is the ANC parliamentary caucus is actually run by Doris Dlakude, the deputy chief whip who had never been promoted to chief whip despite having served at least three chief whips.

ANC Chief Whip Pemmy Majodina, formerly an Eastern Cape MEC, has raised eyebrows in different circles at the national legislatures by often playing a blatantly and explicit party political role. That has included attending committees, a highly unusual step for a chief whip, whose responsibility also includes working with chief whips of other political parties to ensure the smooth running of Parliament.

Various debates and sittings have highlighted a national legislature sharply divided along party political lines, struggling to unite around national issues.

Until Speaker Thandi Modise called for unity and respect, heckles marked the Women's Day debate that came in the wake of the widespread public anger at the devastating news of the confession of a post office employee of the rape and killing of student Uyinene Mrwetyana, just days after the killing of boxing champ Leighandre “Baby Lee” Jegels by her policeman ex-boyfriend, the killing of student and church youth leader Jesse Hess and the discovery of the body of 14-year-old Janika Mallo.

The two economic debates – one called by the ANC on the developmental state, the other by the DA on unemployment – respectively last Tuesday and Thursday were steeped in clichéd politicking and party political point-scoring.

The ANC parliamentary caucus lekgotla this weekend was meant to plan and set out the caucus line for the next five years. It included “the balance of forces and repositioning the caucus in the new epoch”, as the draft programme put it, political education for caucus and the 2021 local government elections. It wasn’t always smooth running, and not many ministers attended throughout. It came as Parliament’s programme is about to kick up several gears.

Cabinet in the next few days is set to provide a list of the draft laws it wants revived, the programming committee heard last Thursday. All legislation before Parliament when it rose for the May 2019 elections lapsed, and it will take motions in the House to revive those identified. It could be a good number.

This as the first few new draft laws have been submitted to the national legislatures, including amendments to the Promotion of Access to Information Act, to expressly allow its use to obtain details on party political funding, and the Recognition of Customary Marriages Amendment Bill to fix property matters.

There is pressure on the legislative front as six Constitutional Court rulings require new laws between February and October 2020. The presentation to the programming committee on 5 September shows these new laws deal with anything from fixing the discrimination against women in the Upgrading of Land Tenure Rights Act to remedying the oddity that women married out of community of property under the Transkei Marriage Act do not enjoy the same rights of protection the Divorce Act provides.

Coincidentally, this Constitutional Court ruling of October 2018 arises out of the drawn-out divorce saga of Deputy Justice Minister Phathekile Holomisa.

There are further legislative amendments for Parliament to process for which, however, there is a set deadline as the Constitutional Court has already read into the law a remedy that remains in place until Parliament acts.

Aside from the annual performance and strategic plans that must be scrutinised, committees must also process the annual reports which are being tabled in Parliament before the statutory deadline of end of September.

These processes are part of Parliament’s financial and budgetary oversight that in this half of the year coincide with the Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS) scheduled on 23 October. The MTBPS signals changes in priorities to be announced in the February 2020 Budget, and makes adjustments to allocations.

Parliament’s administration, meanwhile, on 5 September told MPs it would have to write to National Treasury for more money. The budget for members’ remuneration was overspent by 42%, according to documents before the Joint Standing Committee on the Financial Management of Parliament, due to the payment of exit gratuities to MPs who did not return after the May 2019 elections. For every full five-year terms served, the gratuity amounts to four months’ salary, and is a direct charge against the national revenue fund.

Elsewhere, parliamentary attention is also required.

On Tuesday, the justice committee is set to respond to the speaker’s specific request whether it intended to hold an inquiry into the fitness for office of Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane, as requested by DA Chief Whip John Steenhuisen. In late August, the committee decided the rules committee had to draft the rules for such an inquiry, as these do not yet exist.

And after the Western Cape High Court on 19 September heard the interdict application from sacked top prosecutor Nomgcobo Jiba, the justice committee must decide how to proceed with its statutory deliberations on whether to endorse or reject the presidential decision to dismiss Jiba and Lawrence Mrwebi, the former Special Commercial Crimes Unit head.

Heading to Parliament also is a legislative amendment to strengthen the Employment Equity Act, according to the statement on the 5 September Cabinet meeting. The decision came after the latest report by the Commission for Employment Equity showed a slow pace of transformation that has left senior management ranks predominately white and male.

And there’s more.

Parliament’s communications committee is publishing the adverts for four commissioners at the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa), the programming committee heard on 5 September.

And on Friday, the health committee issued a statement calling for public comment on the National Health Insurance (NHI) Bill by 11 October, with an indication of whether the writer would also like to make verbal submissions during the subsequent public hearings.

Then there’s the R59-billion bailout for Eskom in the Special Appropriation Bill that Parliament’s appropriation committee must process in September still. Eskom desperately needs the money, as Mboweni has bluntly put it, to meet its liabilities – and keep the lights on.

How the ANC decides to deal with this parliamentary in-tray alongside its intention to spend more time in constituencies – the next election is just around the corner with the 2021 municipal poll – will irrevocably shape this Parliament. DM