SUPPORT SERVICES FOR MEMBERS
constituencies (“the sovereign authority”). Here I refer to the concept of the social contract as espoused by Rousseau.
We believe the general well- being of the Members of Parliament is a fundamental and supreme prerequisite for the efficient operation of the institution. It is therefore an imperative for the institution of Parliament itself to nurture and enhance, without any measure of doubt, the social, political and economic support systems that must underpin the performance of the Members of Parliament both inside and outside the institution. It is also important not only to strengthen the structures and bodies created by Parliament, but also to enable Members to fulfil their constitutional mandate as elected Members and the voices of the people.
On 3 November 1774, after being elected to the United Kingdom House of Commons as a representative for Bristol, Edmund Burke said, “Parliament is not a congress of ambassadors from different and hostile interests, which interests each must maintain, as an agent and advocate, against other agents and advocates; but Parliament is a deliberative Assembly of one nation with one interest – that of the whole: where, not local purposes, not local prejudices ought to guide, but the general good, resulting from the general reason of the whole.” Therefore, the Members of Parliament will always share, individually and collectively, in the success or failure of service delivery. A healthy, mentally alert, well- trained, skilled and well-resourced Member becomes an effective vehicle to realize the mission and vision of Parliament. Parliament has recently prioritized sport and recreation and has established a council for the physical well-being of Members of Parliament. In order for Parliament to be effective in influencing genuine social and political transformation, it must work constantly to turn its quantitative changes into qualitative
changes through a rigorous training and orientation programme for its Members.
This, invariably, brings into sharp focus the inescapable interconnectedness and interdependence or lack thereof between National Assembly Speaker Hon. Max Vuyesile Sisulu’s strong concern about correctly positioning Parliament in terms of its relationship with the other two arms of government and the categorical imperative to constantly capacitate and empower Members of Parliament to overcome these fault lines.
Some of the areas of training which are accessible to Members of Parliament are:
• The Legislative Processes; • House Rules and Procedures; • Committees and Oversight; • Members’ interests; • Decorum, and • Ethics and a Code of Conduct.
In order to be more inclusive in our approach, the Office on Internal Arrangements in the National Assembly along with the National Council of Provinces, the QCF and the Forum Support Office liaise and co-operate with internal stakeholders such as the Chief Whips’ Forum, the Programming Committee, the Rules Committees, the Parliamentary Oversight Authority and the Executive Authority, and with external structures such as the Public Works Department on accommodation for Members (Parliamentary Villages) and maintenance of buildings and the South African Police Services on security for Members both within Parliament and at the Parliamentary Villages.
New training for Members The capacitation of Members of Parliament in South Africa also ensures that Parliament becomes more than a Chamber of ideas. It should also become the forum for minimizing unconstructive inter-party conflicts, including the eradication of prejudices in any form, in order to
42 | The Parliamentarian | 2013: Issue One - South Africa
build national consensus and lasting democracy.
The next level of training will be on finance and economy, committees and oversight, public participation and personal growth as highlighted by Members of Parliament themselves in training questionnaires distributed to them.
This project will be implemented in two phases: first the development
and implementation of a skills-based unaccredited training programme for Members, which will be presented by Members, internal officials and ex-MPs amongst others and, secondly to collaborate with academic and research institutions and develop an accredited training programme for future implementation. Looking also at the role of Parliament in international
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