STANDING rules for the national assembly refer to people not directly involved with parliament as “strangers”. The ANC wants to change this. There are no strangers, it says, only “non-members” — after all, parliament represents the country’s people.
A drive to involve the public in law-making has seized the new parliament. Holy cows of the apartheid system are being unceremoniously slaughtered on the altar of transparency and openness.
The reference to “strangers” is an anachronistic inheritance of the apartheid regime, with its emphasis on restrictive formality — much of it an echo of the British system. Other relics of the past are slowly falling victim to the new, “more people-sensitive” government.
On a symbolic level, much has already changed, such as the scrapping of the formal dress code. However, the next few weeks will see parliament fundamentally transformed.
The complicated portfolio committee system introduced in 1983 is being thoroughly reviewed, with a view not only to improving efficiency but also to allowing the public’s direct involvement in drawing up legislation.
The committee system — the driving force of parliament’s legislative programme — will be completely overhauled in terms of proposals prepared by a subcommittee of the rules committee, chaired by the ANC’s Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi. Hand in hand with this is a major overhaul of the legislative process itself.
In future, all departments will have to publish all Bills and allow the public at least three weeks to make representations. Ministers will also be obliged to explain legislation and amendments to the national assembly (NA) to ensure that MPs know exactly what is planned at all times.
“The idea is to open parliament up to the public and to make it as inclusive as possible,” said justice committee chairman Johnny de Lange (ANC). “There will be stronger demands on parliamentarians and they will be expected to interact much more than in the past in the drawing up of legislation.”
The new system will come into effect at the end of August, or by the latest in the first week of September, once it is approved by the party caucuses.
The changes are part of a deliberate effort to bring parliament closer to the electorate and to move away from the elitism and secrecy that marked NP rule.
Cabinet members introducing Bills will have to motivate them. One member of each party in the NA will be allowed to make a brief input, but no debate will be allowed at this stage.
Bills will be referred to relevant portfolio committees, which will have the power to make amendments, and will then be published in the Government Gazette for public scrutiny and representations.
Committees will, after three weeks, table Bills in the national assembly. Portfolio committee chairmen will address the house and explain the report. The Bill will then be placed on an order paper for a second reading, and can then be debated.
The new proposals follow a strong push by the ANC caucus to be more directly involved in parliament’s workings. Many ANC members believed the gap between the executive (the cabinet) and the legislature (parliament) was unnecessarily wide.
De Lange — who did most of the groundwork for the new system — said there was no intention to interfere in the work of ministers. However, there must be a “consultative and recommendation-making nature throughout the year between government departments and the committees.
“Committee members will sit down and will be involved with the various departments in the drawing up of the Bills. Our recommendations may be rejected, but eventually all legislation will serve before the portfolio committees anyway.”
De Lange did not think this would give individuals on the committees too much power: “Party representatives in the committees can only raise matters accepted or approved by their caucuses. They will not be able to act without a mandate.”
Debating procedures are also changing. Because initially there was hardly any legislation on the table to discuss, members tended to fall back on party rhetoric. This led to a barrage of party platitudes and inconsequential speeches.
Both the ANC and the NP agree that the way parliament operates at present should be thoroughly reviewed.
Parliamentary sessions are structured so that one political debate follows the other. NP cabinet member Dawie de Villiers this week complained that this “leads to a great measure of repetition”, with political positions being restated “in different words without any constructive results”.
The 27 budget votes discussed in the national assembly would be repeated in the senate in an exercise that could take up to eight weeks.
It is agreed that extended public committees will in future play a bigger role in scrutinising and discussing these votes to cut down on repetition.
But ultimately, the rule changes will serve only to accommodate a completely new approach to government. What would previously have constituted a major governmental crisis — such as the caucus overturning cabinet decisions — is now par for the course.
It was once unthinkable for the NP caucus to interfere with legislation prepared by the executive. But the ANC caucus showed its strength during the last session when legislation allowing for so-called parliamentary councillors — accepted by the cabinet and the standing committee — was rejected by the national assembly and eventually scrapped.
Smaller parties are cautioning against the threat of “anarchy”, but the feeling within the ANC is that the way things are done is an extension of a tradition established within the ANC before it came to parliament. “This is democracy in action,” said one ANC member.
Constitutional Affairs select committee chairman Pravin Gordhan said recently the caucus was “not the rubberstamp of the executive”. This is likely to continue to be the case. – Chris Louw