House Chairperson, hon members, I just want to quote from Abraham Lincoln when he said, "... government of the people, by the people, and for the people". The people's government means an agreement between the people and their government which they would have voted overwhelmingly into power, in which the people give their liberty, faith, confidence, aspirations and their hopes in exchange for the government protecting and delivering the remainder.
The theoretical and ideological base for a people's Parliament is informed by that historic document the Freedom Charter, which was adopted at the people's congress in Kliptown in 1955. Furthermore, it was expressed at the Morogoro Consultative Conference of the glorious movement of our people, the ANC, in 1969.
During the Morogoro Conference held in Tanzania from 25 April to 1 May under the theme Intensify the Revolution, the National Executive Committee's political report said:
The Parliament of South Africa will be wholly transformed into an Assembly of the People. Every man and woman in our country shall have the right to vote for and stand as a candidate for all offices and bodies which make laws.
This has been achieved in South Africa today. Here we are, united in our diversity - people of different colours, men and women, being people's representatives.
The report went on to say:
The present administration will be smashed and broken up. In its place will be created an administration in which people irrespective of race, colour, creed or sex can take part.
Forty years after the Morogoro Conference, the people's representatives of different races and colours are sitting on the benches and participating in committees of Parliament, representing our people and also serving to build and reconstruct our nation and our country.
The Morogoro Conference report went on to say:
The bodies of minority rule shall be abolished, and in their place will be established democratic organs of self-government in all the provinces, districts and towns of the country.
Today we pride ourselves on this vision of the ANC which has ushered in true democracy and transformed all organs of state to respond to the needs of our people and those of the developmental state. I raise this and refer to this historic document to remind the House that our struggle for transformation has a vision and is informed by a quest to build a nonracial, nonsexist, democratic and prosperous society.
When we were introducing and debating Parliament's vision in the third democratic Parliament on just one concept called the people's parliament ... I want to respond to the hon Mike Ellis on this. I thought I was not going to respond, but having heard him engaging with and ridiculing the notion of an activist parliament, I felt I needed to remind this House of something.
When we debated a people's parliament, the DA fundamentally opposed the notion of a people's parliament to the extent that they wanted to vote against it in the Joint Rules Committee. To date, since that time, we have never heard any DA member saying in their speeches "a people's parliament" or "an assembly of the people", as it was pronounced by our forefathers at the Morogoro Conference. Neither do we see in any of their literature or doctrine any usage of a "people's parliament" or an "activist parliament". Hon Ellis, instead of waiting to criticise, you ought to contribute ideas towards this novel idea - if you are still in the House, hon Ellis.
To be an activist parliament, a people's parliament, involves bringing about changes, transforming Parliament and turning it into a tool that can be used to transform the state and society. By an activist parliament is meant a power to persuade. Theoretical persuasion is considered to be a communication process designed to influence another person's attitudes, values or behaviour. Most theoretical perspectives agree that there are at least two essential elements in persuasion - intentionality and success.
Persuasion is both structural and people-centred, involving the entire party political spectrum. It is power to be persuaded for change and success in changing people's attitudes. Persuasion is one of the oldest and most studied phenomena in the field of speech communication. An activist is an active individual or a group of people who work for change.
The ANC adopted in its National General Council a slogan or theme pronouncing itself an agent for change. Activism also involves some sort of marginalised status within a particular society. It is aimed at an ideology to change the public's prevailing conception on certain things.
For our Parliament to be an activist parliament and a people's parliament, requires a shift in thinking, doing and understanding. Power relations is a world phenomenon that the executive is dominant over parliaments. In many instance this is deliberately done by those in the executive branch of government by denying resources and capacity to the legislative arm. It is usually in their interest to have a weaker parliament. Such characteristics continue to display themselves in the South African context. The ANC, as a ruling party, must go against the flow.
A number of instruments and tools were adopted by the third Parliament in pursuance of the people's parliament to ensure that we do not become a rubber stamp parliament such as the model we have adopted on oversight, which is still to be translated into a mechanism in the Rules. Powers to enforce compliance need to be adopted. Where there is failure in the power to sanction, we need to change that. The power and function to reject or amend the Budget without affecting programmes geared towards a better life for our people as in the Money Bills Amendment Procedure and Related Matters Act should be encouraged.
A delegation that attended the conference of the SADC Organisation of Public Accounts Committees in Zambia came back with the following report. They were told by the Ugandan delegation that the Public Accounts Committee in Uganda has the powers inserted in their rules where they have partnered with the police. Should there be an accounting officer who deliberately misleads or lies to the committee, the official will be arrested immediately until they tell the truth in parliament. So, we could look at such models in Africa and elsewhere in the world, which can then give more powers and ensure that indeed this becomes an activist parliament.
However, the power relations should not be adversarial. They should be understood within the context that we all have distinct mandates. We are differently deployed to discharge these particular mandates without fear or favour, not because we are opponents - those in the executive branch and in the legislative arm - but because we are all enjoined to execute our mandates of overseeing and scrutinising the executive as an implementing agency. In the context of our mandates, we will put difficult questions; express what we see happening or not happening in our communities, what the people feel in as far as the impact of the legislation passed is concerned and whether service delivery is indeed happening. When these things happen, the executive should not think we are attacking them as individuals. However, we should, as Members of Parliament, avoid sensationalism and populism.
The Rules of Parliament is another area we ought to look at. Since the development process that led to the current Rules in 1994, most of the amendments were technical and ad hoc. We need to fundamentally overhaul our Rules, informed by the current objectivity of the society we are building and by the current social and political factors in our country within the context of the African philosophy and way of living and also within the global environment. This will assist us in realising an activist parliament, otherwise the Rules, as they currently are, are confining.
The programming of Parliament also ought to be revisited and reviewed. Fifteen years after democracy, our current programming, which has succeeded in repealing the majority of the apartheid laws which dominated the programme of Parliament in the past 15 years, was helpful and is indeed still helpful. However, the increase in oversight activities, require Parliament to spend more time in communities and in our society, assessing the impact of our laws on the creation of a better life. So, we need more time to release committees and Members of Parliament to spend more time within communities. For example, we could have a situation where for six months we have plenary sessions where we could ask questions, debate issues and so forth, and have another three months set aside for committee work on oversight and then the last three months of the year to do constituency work, when we revisit the programming.
The budget of Parliament is also constraining. The Speaker in the Budget Vote of Parliament said, "We may not achieve the implementation of our mandates as Parliament unless Parliament's budget is reconsidered differently." Currently, the base of Parliament is a mere R1,3 billion, which is just one fifth of the budget allocated to the rest of society. In comparison to other departments, this is nothing.
If we are to fulfil our mandates, we really need to revisit this. We need resources, capacity, etc. The tools to fulfil our mandates as Parliament on oversight are limited and must be expanded. This can only happen if we can really revisit the budget. Otherwise, we will continue riding our bicycles while chasing "Beemers" and "Benzes". As one executive member said when I was complaining about this, "You can hold on to the bonnet at the back as the car is driving whilst riding your own bicycle. In that way, you will catch them."
Leadership and management is another area that we need to focus on as an institution. We need to review quite a number of policies that were crafted between 1994 and 1996. Most of them are constraining. They frustrate innovative ideas that come from hon members and also disengage a robust Parliament that we want to see.
We are unfortunately also losing quite a number of skills because Parliament is not paying well and people are also being poached by various sectors in society. So, we need to look at both the physical and environmental constraints that are unfortunately limiting in as far as Parliament is concerned.
In conclusion, when people see us as parliamentarians, they must see ... [Interjections.]