Marion Edmunds
MEMBERS of the Reconstruction and Development Portfolio Committee say their committee should be resurrected by Parliament to monitor the work of ministers, provincial MEC’s and local government councillors.
The committee was created to oversee the Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP). The RDP offices were closed nearly a year ago and its programmes parceled out to other ministries. Like the programme, the committee still exists in name, but with no ministry to oversee.
Max Sisulu, former committee chair, says he and other committee members drew up a report and forwarded it to Speaker of the National Assembly Frene Ginwale recommending that the committee be reinstated and endowed with greater authority to monitor projects that fall under the RDP regardless of what ministry runs them.
“The committee would need legitimacy. It should be able to call any minister to account for implementation of the RDP. It should also have the power to go on local inspections,” Sisulu says.
He hopes the report will reach the rules committee of the National Assembly soon, and that legislation would be passed by the year-end.
Sisulu says the committee should act as a watchdog, looking over development projects. He also says the committee could act as a clearing house for information about the RDP that is not easily available.
The report follows recent vows by the African National Congress to better communicate the success of the RDP to the electorate, in anticipation of the 1999 elections. The ANC has been criticised from within and without for sacrificing the RDP for the sake of fiscal discipline and economic growth strategies.
Sisulu said the committee should be restructured to include a range of MPs interested in service delivery and that it should also include delegates of the National Council of Provinces.
Alison Tilley, the Black Sash’s national legislation monitor, this week said breathing life back into the committee sounded like a good idea.