PUBLIC PARTICIPATION


It also seeks to establish mechanisms and standards that will ensure broader participation by all the people. This initiative of the South African legislative sector is spelled out clearly in Section 42 of the constitution that requires Parliament, as well as the provincial Legislatures and municipal councils, to provide fora for the public consideration of issues. The purpose includes enhancing Parliament’s vision of “building an effective people’s Parliament, responsive to the needs of the people and driven by the ideal of realizing a better quality of life for all the people of South Africa”. Public participation is considered fundamental to our People’s Parliament; the work of building genuine, active citizen participation goes back many years and the right to participate in the legislative processes has been the focus of our courts since the early days of our democracy. To protect this right, court rulings have confirmed that Parliament must conduct its business with due regard not only to representative democracy but also to participatory democracy. The courts have recognized that public involvement is inevitably an inexact concept. It might include public participation through the submission of commentary and representations, but that is neither definitive nor exhaustive. Public involvement ranges from citizens understanding what Parliament is doing and being informed of its activities, to participating directly in its processes.


In short, our judicial system has found that the Legislature must take steps to give the public a “reasonable opportunity” to participate effectively in the law-making process. The standard of “reasonableness” depends on a number of factors, including: the nature and importance of the legislation and its impact on the public; practicalities related to the efficiency of law-making, and what a Legislature itself considers to be appropriate public involvement in view of the content, importance and urgency of the legislation in question. All of this means that a


Legislature must provide meaningful


opportunities for public participation and must take measures to ensure people have the capacity or ability to use the opportunities provided. The public can expect that proactive steps will be taken, on an ongoing basis,


that endorses and protects one of the founding principles of our democracy, while responding to changing and challenging circumstances that require innovation and ongoing hard work to make this principle a reality.


The judicial system found that the Legislature had to take steps to give the public a “reasonable opportunity” to participate effectively in the law-making process.


emerged from that conference included: how constituency offices can be enhanced to deepen public participation in Parliament’s work, how public education can be used more effectively to enhance


to inform them of the processes of Parliament. In South Africa, therefore, our courts have ruled that public participation is both a right and a duty, which applies to the law-making and oversight functions of Parliament.


Developing meaningful participation


Nineteen years into our democracy, Parliament has recognized the need to revive this principle and take it a step further. The Public Participation Framework is the latest in a series of efforts aimed at developing a tool


78 | The Parliamentarian | 2013: Issue One - South Africa


The centrality of public


participation was reflected in 2006 at a conference on Deepening Democracy, which posed the question: How does the Legislature capture the interest of “unorganized” sectors of the people to facilitate public participation? Whether – and how – the current system of public hearings could be improved in terms of format, location, advertising, processing submissions and providing feedback was also discussed.


The important issues that


public participation, how to involve civil society in giving feedback and recommendations on public participation processes and how social networks can be drawn on to deepen the reach of public participation.


In 2009, Parliament adopted its Oversight Model. Launched in 2011 during Parliament’s budget vote debate, the Oversight Model sets out the values, principles and mechanisms by which Parliament conducts oversight.


Importantly for the current


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88  |  Page 89  |  Page 90  |  Page 91  |  Page 92  |  Page 93  |  Page 94  |  Page 95  |  Page 96  |  Page 97  |  Page 98  |  Page 99  |  Page 100  |  Page 101  |  Page 102  |  Page 103  |  Page 104  |  Page 105  |  Page 106  |  Page 107  |  Page 108  |  Page 109  |  Page 110  |  Page 111  |  Page 112  |  Page 113  |  Page 114  |  Page 115  |  Page 116  |  Page 117  |  Page 118  |  Page 119  |  Page 120  |  Page 121  |  Page 122  |  Page 123  |  Page 124  |  Page 125  |  Page 126  |  Page 127  |  Page 128  |  Page 129  |  Page 130  |  Page 131  |  Page 132  |  Page 133  |  Page 134  |  Page 135  |  Page 136  |  Page 137  |  Page 138  |  Page 139  |  Page 140  |  Page 141  |  Page 142  |  Page 143  |  Page 144  |  Page 145  |  Page 146  |  Page 147  |  Page 148  |  Page 149  |  Page 150  |  Page 151  |  Page 152  |  Page 153  |  Page 154  |  Page 155  |  Page 156  |  Page 157  |  Page 158  |  Page 159  |  Page 160  |  Page 161  |  Page 162  |  Page 163  |  Page 164  |  Page 165  |  Page 166  |  Page 167  |  Page 168  |  Page 169  |  Page 170  |  Page 171  |  Page 172  |  Page 173  |  Page 174  |  Page 175  |  Page 176  |  Page 177  |  Page 178  |  Page 179  |  Page 180  |  Page 181  |  Page 182  |  Page 183  |  Page 184  |  Page 185  |  Page 186  |  Page 187  |  Page 188  |  Page 189  |  Page 190  |  Page 191  |  Page 192  |  Page 193  |  Page 194  |  Page 195  |  Page 196  |  Page 197  |  Page 198  |  Page 199