An ANCproposal to scrap parliamentary interpellations has caused a controversy, report Howard Barrell and Barry Streek
The African National Congress is proposing radical changes to the rules governing question time in Parliament which will cause a major row with opposition parties.
The ANC is suggesting that the number of questions to Cabinet members should be allocated to each party in proportion to the number of MPs each party has. This would give ANC MPs two-thirds of the opportunities to ask questions. Under the existing system, questions are allocated on a first-come, first-served basis.
Opposition parties are accusing the ruling party of a transparent attempt to limit their ability to hold the government to account at parliamentary question time.
The ANC’s proposals would also require the president to answer questions only once a quarter. These questions would be sifted by the speaker to ensure they raised issues of sufficient national or international importance to warrant the president’s attention.
The president currently is under no technical obligation to answer parliamentary questions. But, since Thabo Mbeki became president in June last year, opposition parties have criticised him for the infrequency of his appearances in Parliament and for what they allege is his unwillingness to make himself accountable to MPs. Mbeki was elected president by MPs last June; he was not directly elected by voters.
A further ANC proposal is to scrap mini- debates, known as interpellations, in favour of more and longer oral questioning of ministers on the floor of the Assembly. The ANC plan would give MPs the right to ask a number of supplementary questions arising out of a minister’s answer. While the proposal to scrap interpellations is controversial among opposition parties, some welcome the suggestion to allow supplementary questions. Opposition parties say the ANC proposals contradict the spirit of the Constitution and the desire for open and transparent government embodied in four constitutional Bills recently rushed through Parliament.
Opposition party whips were this week preparing for a joint strategy meeting on February 7, ahead of a meeting two days later with their ANC counterparts in Parliament’s Whips’ Forum, at which many issues of Parliament’s procedure and programme are discussed.
One senior opposition whip accused Mbeki of “behaving as if he’s the queen of England” – above politics.
“He’s not the queen. He is both queen, or head of state, and prime minister at the same time. He must answer to Parliament on a regular basis,” he said.
The plan to allocate the bulk of opportunities for questions to the ANC would result in “a whole lot of useless, sweetheart questions”, he added.
Richard Calland, head of political programmes at the Institute for Democracy in South Africa, said the proposals represented a “missed opportunity” for the president and for Parliament in terms of its role as scrutineer of the government. The ANC’s proposals were originally drawn up by John Jeffrey, Deputy President Jacob Zuma’s parliamentary counsellor, who became an MP only eight months ago. They were then slightly amended by the ANC national working committee of which Frene Ginwala, the speaker of the National Assembly, is a member.