Marion Edmunds
South Africa’s jet-setting MPs may find their frequent flights cancelled if they do not work harder in Parliament.
African National Congress chief whip Max Sisulu is to crack his whip with a new vehemence, after introducing strict disciplinary measures for slack ANC MPs in caucus this week.
Sisulu says they could be fined up to R500 for failing to attend committee meetings, they might lose their leave or travel privileges, or they could be reported to President Nelson Mandela and Deputy President Thabo Mbeki, or their provincial leadership.
The latter two penalties are particularly worrisome for MPs or National Council of Provinces delegates, many of whom are campaigning for support for national executive committee positions at the ANC conference, or a place on party lists for the next elections.
The disciplinary measures, contained in Sisulu’s first annual report to his caucus, asserts his personal authority as the ANC’s political leader and manager in Parliament. The professional tone, urgency and substance of the report contrasts sharply with the laidback manner of the former chief whip, Reverend Makhenkesi Stofile, who left a shambolic Parliament last year to take up the premiership of the Eastern Cape.
Sisulu lays down ground rules for the ANC’s attendance and participation in the legislative processes, establishing his office as the party’s node centre in Parliament.
“Parliament and committees have found themselves in the embarrassing position of being unable to vote on legislation because there have not been enough members in attendance. This is not only inefficient, it also makes a mockery of democracy,” says his report.
Parliament currently abounds with examples of committees that lack quorums and cannot proceed, or that cancel meetings at the last minute because parliamentarians have conflicting commitments.
Sisulu says ANC parliamentarians will be confined to two committees each to make it possible for them to concentrate on their portfolios. Each committee will have a whip to maintain quorums. National Assembly debates will be shortened, and timetables co-ordinated a year in advance.
“We are now much better prepared before we walk into the debating chamber and we are much more effective as a result,” he says in his report.
If successful, these measures – many of which he is already starting to implement – will have a major impact on Parliament, which hosts up to 15 committee meetings a day and is swamped by 37 Bills to pass before the end of the session in November.
Sisulu is assisted in his drive to transform the ANC’s parliamentary performance by two consultants from the British Labour Party, who have been working with him for almost a year. Their salaries are paid by the Westminster Foundation; their brief is to help build multi-party democracy.
Sisulu said he cannot share the men, Mike Elrick and Steve Hardwick, with opposition parties.
“We are prepared to work with other political parties but right now we do not have the capacity to do without them. We need them,” he says.