PARLIAMENTARY COMMITTEES
to resolve these problems at a policy level, • Report back to Parliament to clearly identify the problems and demonstrate the method of inves- tigation used to gather the relevant evidence and • Recommend in their reports what they think the House should do.
Committees at work Multiparty committees conduct regular oversight visits in all nine South African provinces. Their role was summed up succinctly by the Chairperson of the Select Committee on Security and Constitutional Development, Mr Tjheta Mofokeng, MP, at the conclusion of week-long public hearings held by his committee late in 2012 to hear citizens’ views on a particularly controversial piece of legislation, the Traditional Courts Bill: “As the committee, we have listened carefully to all the participants who made their voices heard at the hearings and noted their divergent views. We listened impartially to all sides without making conclusive remarks. The committee will meet at a later stage to further deliberate on the consolidated reports from all inputs in order to make an informed decision on the next step.”
That next step is to submit the report for consideration or even merely for information. The House can respond to the report in a number of ways, including “noting”,” adopting”, “amending” or “referring the report back” to the committee or any other committee for further consideration. If a committee report is tabled “for consideration” it means that the report requires a decision of the House and this may lead to a full-scale parliamentary debate ending in a motion put to the House. What the committee aims for is for the House to adopt its report because the report then has the force of a formal Assembly resolution. The Speaker will engage the executive authority to communicate recommendations adopted by it and the House also monitors executive compliance with the recommendations. When a response
is received by the executive, it is reported back to that committee. In practice, a committee report is therefore a powerful mechanism that, if processed by the House, can give effective expression to the Assembly’s oversight responsibilities, which in turn strengthens the role and status of committees themselves. Committee reports and
recommendations are first scanned to ensure that recommendations comply with the constitution and adhere to the principles of the “separation of powers”, respect other spheres of government and the accountability of the executive to the National Assembly. Recommendations adopted by the House are then directed to the relevant government Minister, who is expected to report back to the House. The Minister submits his/ her response to the Speaker, who tables the response and refers it to the relevant committee. This also facilitates monitoring of executive compliance.
A Committee report should provide the House with enough information to enable it to decide whether it wishes to adopt the recommendations. Committees therefore have extensive powers to:
• Confer with other parliamentary committees, • Call any entity or person to provide evidence, • Determine their own procedure and • Request House Chairpersons responsible for committees to co-ordinate meetings amongst com- mittees.
Spanning both Houses South Africa’s two Chambers each have their own committees. The Portfolio Committees serve the main House, the National Assembly, while Select Committees conduct oversight for the second Chamber, the National Council of Provinces.
There are also joint committees established by the Constitution or an act of Parliament, for example the Joint Standing Committee on
38 | The Parliamentarian | 2013: Issue One - South Africa
Defence and the Joint Standing Committee on Intelligence. Either Chamber may appoint a temporary or ad hoc committee for specific investigations. One such example was the National Council of Provinces Ad Hoc Committee on the Protection of State Information Bill. This was particularly significant as this Bill was controversial and generated vigorous citizen opposition, with the result that it went through 120 amendments in the National Assembly before it was passed. The next step was to refer it to the National Council of Provinces, which established the ad hoc committee comprising 15 MPs. Ten were from the ruling African National Congress, two from the official opposition Democratic Alliance and one each from three minority parties, the Congress of the People, the Independent Democrats and the Inkatha Freedom Party. The NCOP’s ad hoc committee immediately drew up a plan to take the Bill on a roadshow to the nine provinces to test public opinion.
The committee was divided into teams in order to cover more ground, and public hearings were held simultaneously in different venues. The leader of one delegation, Ms Nosipho Ntwanambi, MP, summed up the purpose of the committee’s consultation process at one such public hearing. Following a brief synopsis of the Bill which was translated into two additional local indigenous languages, she said the following:
“We need the public to tell us exactly how they view the Bill so that when we go back to Parliament to deliberate we do not misrepresent the people. As we deliberate in Parliament, we want to amplify the people’s views. It is people’s right to disagree with whatever they feel they disagree with and we can’t expect people to agree with us on everything. But it’s important that if they criticize us, they do so in a constructive way.”
Getting to grips with real issues In a country where bread-and-butter issues are the concern of most
Committee Members investigate community water problems.
people, especially in remote rural areas, citizens nevertheless regularly demonstrate their determination to engage with government on decision- making and delivery.
A tiny fishing community in the Western Cape used the occasion of a visit by the Portfolio Committee on Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries in 2011 to report a practice known as “fronting” in which black workers are listed as shareholders without their knowledge to meet quotas for black empowerment.
“Imagine my surprise,” said one veteran fisherman who had lived all his life below the breadline, “when I discovered that I was a shareholder of a registered company that makes money and yet I got nothing from its returns. I was told that the white members of the company could not get registration without black members, so they used ‘black’ names.”
In another part of the country, Chief Lawrence Baleni of the
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