Barry Streek
Parliamentary oversight over the Cabinet should play a significant role in ensuring the delivery of constitutionally guaranteed socio-economic rights and the entrenchment of a rights-based culture, delegates to a seminar in Cape Town said in a declaration this week.
They also concluded that the separation of powers between the legislature, the executive and the judiciary could result in tense relationships but “this tension need not necessarily be characterised by acrimony; it can be both creative and indicative of a healthy democracy”.
The one-day seminar on parliamentary oversight formed part of “Democracy 2000”, a partnership between the Institute for Democracy in South Africa (Idasa) and the British Council.
Among the speakers at the seminar were African National Congress MPs Fatima Chohan-Kota (chair of the parliamentary committee on accountability), Langa Zita and Andrew Feinstein, as well as British Labour Party MP Martin Linton and a member of a United Kingdom commission into reform of parliamentary oversight, Zeinab Badawi.
The head of Idasa’s political information and monitoring service, Richard Calland, said after the seminar: “Parliamentary oversight is not about embarrassing ministers or making them resign, it is about ensuring delivery.”
While party politics is essential to Parliament, the oversight function of Parliament should be insulated from party politics, he said.
Parliament’s oversight role is clearly defined in the Constitution and is based on the separation of powers and functions between the three arms of government.
“We recognise that this relationship may sometimes result in tension between the three arms of government as the current arms deal controversy shows,” Calland said. “However, this tension need not necessarily be characterised by acrimony. It can be both creative and indicative of a healthy democracy.”
The “Declaration of principles on oversight and accountability”, adopted at the seminar, says: “We recognise that the framework within which our political system operates is informed by the constitutional separation of powers and functions which is shaped by South Africa’s history” and that “this separation mediates the relationship between the legislature, the executive and the judiciary”.
The declaration also said it was recognised that: “Parliament as an institution must be reflective of public and social concerns if it is to retain public legitimacy.
“Further, that the Constitution expects Parliament to perform certain key functions and that parliamentary oversight is a key feature of these functions; that party politics is essential to Parliament, but certain political and constitutional mechanisms of oversight should, in the performance of certain tasks and responsibilities, be insulated from the party political imperative.
“We resolve to: continue to promote a vibrant and effective Parliament which acts on behalf of the people to promote socio-economic transformation and accountability; further promote the oversight role which committees of Parliament have in scrutinising executive action and public expenditure; ensure that committees are empowered with sufficient research and other resources to fulfil this role; and provide comparative and other research to inform the institutionalisation of parliamentary oversight.”