”It’s true that we are getting resistance from the executive. For instance, I served in one committee for six years and left it because I got tired of wasting my time with a minister who refused to listen to me.”
With his head bent in despair chairperson of the environmental affairs portfolio committee Langa Zita recently told a panel of experts how African National Congress (ANC) MPs struggled to get their voices heard by ministers. His comments set the tone for a session in which ruling party MPs vented their anger and frustration at the way they are being treated by their colleagues in the Cabinet.
ANC MPs have been complaining for years about not being taken seriously by Cabinet ministers and being treated with disdain by their leaders.
Jeremy Cronin, chairperson of the transport portfolio committee, said MPs were treated like ‘second-class citizens†by the executive and this had created an inferiority complex among them. ‘There are lots of frustration with ministers who don’t come for question time in the house and don’t honour meetings with the portfolio committees.â€
On Wednesday, Deputy Speaker Gwen Nkabinde-Mahlangu raised the issue in the Assembly, where dozens of parliamentary questions to ministers remained unanswered.
Earlier this week the Minister of Home Affairs, Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, did not arrive for a scheduled portfolio committee meeting for the second time in two weeks and sent her deputy, Malusi Gigaba, to attend on her behalf. He could not answer some of the questions raised because they related to the department’s handling of his alleged misconduct.
Cronin said Parliament needed to have some control over money Bills in order to gain real power and to force ministers to treat the institution with more respect. ‘We are being marginalised and ministers see us as the embarrassment factor. They are wary because we may embarrass them with difficult questions in committee meetings.†The parliamentary ANC could call a minister to task, but ‘at the end of the day the executive can just ignore thatâ€.
The Constitution gives Parliament the right to amend money Bills, but as yet, that right has not been exercised. Treasury said parliamentarians were not equipped to deal with the fiscus and therefore it presented an annual budget that had never been rejected by its MPs. They have no say, however, in spending priorities.
‘When we meet the executive, they say ‘you guys don’t understand’ and expect us to rubber stamp the budget,†Cronin said.
The hierarchy within the ANC, where ministers are often also high-ranking ANC members, is also hampering the ability of MPs to question the ministers sufficiently on their portfolios.
‘[If] he is a national executive committee member, who am I to ask him a difficult question?†a portfolio chairperson commented.
The discussion among MPs on Monday was part of the work of a panel mandated to assess Parliament and whether it is fulfilling its constitutional mandate.
The panel is chaired by ex-ANC MP Pregs Govender. It also includes former public protector Selby Baqwa, former DA MP Colin Eglin as well as political analysts Aubrey Matshiqi, Sipho Seepe and Judith February. John Kane-Berman, Koko Mashigo, Malavi Papati, Max Sisulu and Frederick van Zyl Slabbert also serve on the panel.
The probe emanates from the African Peer Review that Parliament undertook internally last year and the panel is expected to make its findings public in January 2008.