Parliament plans to introduce an international travel policy to curb unwarranted excursions by MPs suffering from wanderlust.
‘A real appetite seems to be developing for international travel, not necessarily for good reasons,†Deputy Speaker Baleka Mbete told the National Assembly rules committee.
‘This appetite is very little when it comes to [Africa]. It is much more when it comes to Europe and the United States.â€
The parliamentary authorities became aware of the problem when an overlap emerged in this year’s overseas travel plans by various committees.
Initial research, including the collection of travel policies from 15 parliaments, is under way and a task team has been appointed.
Mbete said that the research revealed some countries did not allow overseas travel at all, because ‘the focus of MPs is their countryâ€.
In other cases MPs were required to prove that the information they would glean on
an overseas trip could not be obtained in other ways.
Norway allowed its parliamentarians to visit Europe to gather data on matters with a potential impact back home, while other conditions applied to travel further afield, confirmed Farouk Cassim, deputy chairperson of committees in the National Assembly.
A brief survey of the 2002 Members’ Register of Interest shows that the majority of MPs declared no travel sponsorships. Cabinet ministers who are also MPs, Speaker Frene Ginwala and Democratic Alliance leader Tony Leon are among those who clocked up serious travel.
Others who declared their trips mainly travelled to local destinations for courtesy visits to South African corporations. Travel abroad was to attend conferences or for study tours to institutions ranging from the US Defence Department to the German Bundestag.