In the search for MPs in about 20 parliamentary constituency offices this week, we had just one close encounter, missed by a mere 10 minutes: MPs had either ”just left” or were at the office only on certain days. Several were elsewhere in the country, or at Parliament (which was closed).
Constituency work was officially set down from April 22 to May 9. But at every office there was at least one administrator, each with the required computers, phones and fax machine at hand. Decorating tastes ranged from the discreet yellow, black and green blinds at the African National Congress’s Mitchells Plain office to those who had turned their offices into party megaphones.
At the New National Party’s Mitchells Plain office, wallpaper posters of leader Marthinus van Schalkwyk across the vast office left little doubt where you were. The NNP offices face a conundrum dictated by the party’s quicksand-like allegiances.
Now split from the Democratic Alliance, its offices are still listed under the DA name in the telephone directory.
But each office has posters on issues like human rights and at least one on Parliament. There are usually stacks of government information pamphlets on, for example, the Unemployment Insurance Fund.
At the ANC’s Mitchells Plain office several women waited for assistance. It is the office of Minister of Finance Trevor Manuel, whose Cabinet duties prevent him from making frequent visits, and former trade union leader Connie September, who is on study leave.
In the DA’s Kenilworth office, shared by MPs Dene Smuts and Ken Andrew, party leader Tony Leon was staring from election posters at the abandoned desks. Even the administrator had gone out to help contest Wednesday’s by-election in Grassy Park on the Cape Flats.
In the absence of accessible government, the constituency offices double as public office and advice centres. On a daily basis administrators deal with a string of queries. Sometimes people want to pay TV licences or water bills. Some are at their wits end over bureaucratic snarl-ups with social grants and identity documents. Others face evictions and water or electricity cut-offs or banks wanting to repossess their cars.
It’s easy to spot the Grassy Park ANC constituency office on the first floor of another little neighbourhood ”shopping centre” — the party emblem and ”ANC parliamentary constituency office” are painted on one of the windows facing the street.
”Imam [Gassan Solomon] has just left,” said administrator Nolene Blows.
Faced with people who come to the office with their problems, Blows works with well-established networks to help resolve problems. While a random telephone survey found only one MP actually answering his office phone, cellphone numbers and other details were promptly supplied.
”Comrade [Derek] Hanekom? He is on his way to Johannesburg. You can reach him on his cell,” said the Kimberley ANC constituency office, giving the number.
Eleven weeks are set aside for constituency work between February’s opening of Parliament and its close of session in mid-December. Apart from lawmaking, being avaliable to constituencies is key to MPs’ work, for which they are paid a R5 000 monthly allowance to run their offices.
Each of South Africa’s 400 parliamentarians, selected from party lists on the basis of the votes each party scores in elections, is allocated to a constituency. This year the Cabinet decided to keep this system for next year, rejecting a recommendation by the Electoral Task Team that a substantial number of MPs should be elected through 69 constituencies.
The constituency system is not a well-oiled machine, if a recent Afrobarometer poll is anything to go by. It found that only one in 10 South Africans guessed who their MP was.
MPs might have been difficult to track down in their constituency offices, but this does not mean they were goofing off. The staff of the ANC’s Grassy Park and Guguletu offices listed the MPs’ meetings with police, local community policing forums and other local civic groups during the constituency period.
At the Guguletu ANC office two young girls sat in the sun. They are part of the learnership programme the office runs for about 100 matrics who cannot afford further studies.
”You have just missed the MP. She was here 10 minutes ago,” said administrator Xoliswa Ngubane.
Constituency work should filter back to Parliament as questions or statements by members and on committee agendas, but does it? In Parliament, it often does not seem that way as debates are often esoteric with research culled from newspapers rather than grassroots based.
Party chief whips say they are keeping track: the ANC through quarterly reports, the DA through yearly performance assessments. DA chief whip Douglas Gibson said in addition to a code of conduct MPs are specifically asked to visit schools, clinics or police stations.
”If you like politics and people, the constituency period is a wonderful experience,” he said.
The ANC has adopted a more activist approach, with MPs getting involved in community affairs and individual problems. ”We don’t want them to go there to sit in an office behind the desk,” said ANC chief whip Nkosinathi Nhleko.
So, how precisely do you get hold of your MP? Getting in touch with constituency offices can be tough.
In King William’s Town in the Eastern Cape calls to the ANC constituency telephone numbers listed in Parliament’s guide were met with: ”The number you have dialled is presently not in service.”
A call to the provincial ANC head office led to another telephone number and another out-of-order number, an expensive and frustrating task if you’re a poor constituent.
Without access to the internet and phone access, it’s almost impossible. So, for South African voters trying to get in touch with their MPs, it could be a case of not-so-close encounters. But this is an election year, so things might just look up.