Mr Darren Bergman (DA)

What is your Political background?

I began my interest in politics in my youth, especially when I was writing my oral exam in school. I initially wanted to be a pilot but my love for Mr Nelson Mandela diverted my interest to politics in 1994. My English teacher gave me books to read about politics and then joined the Youth League and became the National Youth Chairperson of the PP. I was a Councillor in Johannesburg from 2000 until 2014. I became a Member of Parliament in 2014 in the fifth Parliament.

What does my job as MP involve in detailed?

On Mondays it is constituency day and I usually spend the day in my constituency and this is also the case on weekends. Tuesdays is committee work and this is where I attend committee meetings and attend plenaries in the afternoon. Wednesdays is assigned to attend another committee meetings and this is basically hold the Executive accountable. Thursdays are assigned for caucus and other plenaries and then Fridays are mostly spent travelling or doing administrative work.

What is your impression of the fifth parliament so far?

I think our productivity as Members of Parliament is more on our oversight than what is being done in Parliament. I find it more productive when we are taking Parliament to the people or doing anything that is related to oversight. I think I find it very useful when we go and do an unexpected oversight to a particular government department or entity and uncover many things. Unaccountability in the fifth Parliament is a big problem and the number one thing about Parliament is that you should be accountable to the people that had put you there. So question time to the ministers is about accountability but the clearest sign of unaccountability is when ministers do not answer the questions as they had been asked. I often want to cry when I watch school children coming to our Parliament and sitting up in the gallery and often wonder what they thinking when they hear and see how we act in Parliament. We are not setting good example and we are not building role models anymore and we have almost become the laughing stock and embarrassment.

I think more people are clapping when we get a 0% salary increase than being upset and this is sad as we are supposed to restore the dignity of Parliament. I think we should all take it upon ourselves as parliamentarians to keep children in that gallery proud of us and make sure that we are accountable and transparent. I would like to see question time being extended and ministers attending meetings and become more and more involved in Parliament. We should also move Parliament around in terms of getting more people to view what is happening in Parliament and this could be done by making Channel 408 accessible to more people and put incentives to where people could come and watch what is happening in Parliament no matter where you live.

What is your constituency? What is most interesting about your constituency so far?

I was previously assigned Soshanguve South but now I’m assigned Centurion. Centurion is one the biggest in terms of the amount of councillors but in Soshanguve we had a small area in terms of wards as it only has six wards and there are four PR councillors looking after those wards. I am proud to say that three of those councillors have made it into the Executive of Tshwane and the one is now the Speaker in Council. This was also the constituency that had the looting and the university riots in Tshwane University of Technology (TUT). There was a petition to have a police station in the area of Soshanguve and the Portfolio Committee has assured that the matter was being taken into consideration.

What are you passionate about?-this applies both in a political/professional and personal?

I am passionate about transformation on all levels. I am also passionate about making Parliament that everyone would proud of. We have to make a difference in this country in order to be in the right direction and this means everyone should be able to benefit. We all should follow Madiba’s vision in order to make it in this country.

My message to South Africans:

I would say do not lose hope and the one thing that South Africans all have is resilience and we have gone through the worst of the worst but we always seem to rise to the occasion. Let us keep on trying to make this country a better place and never lose hope or become complacent. I would also like to say let us love one another.