Eddie Koch
IN a bold move to clamp down on venality in public office, the African National Congress has decided its MPs must open their family assets and extra- parliamentary earnings to full public scrutiny.
The dramatic decision — possibly a first for any political party in the world — coincides with efforts by the ANC to extend its own internal code of conduct to all parliamentarians.
The ANC’s national executive committee decided at its last meeting to beef up its ethical code by insisting all of the party’s elected representatives declare their private interests to the voters who put them in
The organisation has made this undertaking at the risk of revealing embarrassing details to the public while campaigning for local government elections — even though other parties remain shielded from this kind of scrutiny under the present system.
Water Affairs and Foresty Minister Kader Asmal, who chairs a subcommittee on ethics in the House of Assembly, told the Mail & Guardian the decision “sets an important precedent and a principle for other parties to follow”.
He said the ANC’s initiative would give a boost to plans by his parliamentary committee to set in place a code of conduct that will prevent corruption and money- grabbing by elected representatives of all political
“Our committee is busy working on a national code that we hope will apply to all members of the senate, assembly and provincial legislatures. We hope to finish our work by July so that the house is able to debate our recommendations when it comes back from recess in
The ANC is the only party in the country to have adopted an internal set of ethical rules in the absence of national regulations or legislation to govern the extra-parliamentary business activities of MPs.
Its code of conduct includes tough clauses that bar the party’s elected officials from using government office or parliamentary posts to distribute patronage or obtain personal fortune — and sets up a high-powered disciplinary committee to implement it.
Ministers, premiers and provincial executive councillors are prohibited from playing any active role in profit-making institutions and have to surrender all directorships they held before taking office.
The regulations require ANC members to declare their assets and all other posts from which there is financial benefit in other companies, boards or organisations.
“In particular, they shall disclose all consultancies, shareholdings and directorships or any form of payment received by them or their family from an external source,” it says.
It stipulates that MPs should treat their parliamentary posts as full-time and bans them from taking permanent employment in other jobs. Lobbying for organisations and companies is strictly prohibited.
The ANC’s code is in line with, if not more advanced than, progressive regulations for MPs in other western democracies. But it was flawed because these disclosures remained confidential and secret — until the recent NEC decision.
The ANC’s executive has set up a committee, which includes Asmal and secretary general Cyril Ramaphosa, to urgently devise a system for implementing its new “transparency” resolution.
“This is exceptional. As far as we know, the ANC is the first political party anywhere in the world to make this kind of ruling,” said Asmal.
The national regulations being drafted by the House of Assembly’s ethics subcommittee will be based initially on the ANC’s code but will be refined and adapted to take into account suggestions from other parties. Parliament will have to decide if the national ethics will be legislated or accepted as a set of in-house
“We in the ANC want full and public disclosure in a parliamentary register that will be open to journalists and we want an effective enforcement machinery,” said
“Lobbying should be banned. And it is important to include assets of family members and spouses in the declaration so that these can’t be hidden from the
Stressing these were his personal views, Asmal said special regulations should be implemented for members of parliamentary standing committees as they could be in a position to influence policies that affect their vested interests. A code of ethics should also be devised for people in the chairs of parastatals.
He said his ethics subcommittee’s report to the assembly will be influenced by developments in other democracies, where there is a trend towards tightening the controls on pecuniary benefits that MPs can obtain from being in office.
It can, however, be expected to go much further than most other Western systems that were set in place before disclosure became a major parliamentary issue.
“Since 1979 there have been a number of progressive developments and we have gained a lot of experience from countries like France, Spain, Ireland and Sweden. But at this stage there are still many countries that don’t have the kinds of restrictions and discloure we are planning.”
Asmal told the Mail & Guardian that international publicity surrounding the Nolan Committee, set up in the British House of Commons to devise ways of curbing corruption and sleaze on the part of some of its MPs, would provide a major boost to the work of his
He said it was important to keep the code of conduct and the enforcement machinery simple and effective. “Look at the United States, which has complex regulations and an expensive bureaucracy to administer it, but lots of corruption. We want to avoid that.”
Richard Calland, director of the Parliamentary Information and Monitoring Service (Pims) in Cape Town, said the ANC’s move “was in keeping with trends around the world, including England and Russia, where MPs are banned from any outside business interests.”
But Calland warned that it was vital for a national code to be legislated — rather than enacted as a set of voluntary or in-house rules — as a matter of urgency if “transparency” was to become more than just a buzzword.