Lastly, hon Chairperson, in agreement with hon Bapela, I think we must give ourselves teeth as this Parliament. We don't bite. I was listening to hon Godi of Scopa this morning lamenting - and he can only do that, lament! - that a Director-General for Human Settlements appeared before this committee, misled Parliament and said that the defects in the N2 Gateway Housing Project had been corrected, and when they went there as the committee they realised that those defects had not been corrected, but Parliament and its committee can only lament. It cannot hand over people for prosecution for appearing before themselves and lying, as is happening in other parts of the country.
I think if we can give ourselves those kinds of teeth, even the executive and everybody who appears before us will know that if they don't tell us the real truth we shall have teeth to bite, and that will be one step towards activism. I thank you. [Applause.]
The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mr M B Skosana) Madam Chair, hon members, I would like to thank all the members who took part in the debate. The intention was to try and marshal a common understanding and common ground from where we can all try to make these pronouncements a reality.
I must say that this was indeed a good debate from: Firstly, the hon Gungubele, who emphasised the relevance of leadership, which I think resonates with the daily interests of people of all classes, and its legitimacy, which is derived from its sovereignty.
Secondly, to the hon Ellis, who still wanted to know the meaning of the pronouncement from the Presidency. However, I do think he supports taking Parliament closer to the people and I think he also supports the fact that the sovereignty of whatever programme we work on will have to be derived from the people.
Thirdly, to the hon Smuts Ngonyama, who emphasised the integration of the deployed teams and then decried the state bureaucracy when he said that the legitimacy of bureaucracy ought to be derived from the powers or the will of the people.
Fourthly, to the hon K O Bapela, who reminded us of the agreement between the people and government. Again, those government programmes would also have to have their legitimacy derived from the sovereignty of people. He also said something about breaking the present administration. I thought he was going to talk about the withering-away of the state, but he didn't. He spoke about a shift in thinking and about the oversight model. I think the oversight model is going to be an important mechanism in this fourth Parliament, because it addresses a crucial engine of Parliament, which is the committees and the chairpersons.
Hon Dudley emphasised the voice of the people; that Parliament ought to be the voice of the people and the heartbeat of the nation, which means that the people shall govern. Again, the legitimacy from government is derived from the sovereignty of the people.
Fifthly, to hon Bhoola, who said that activism is out of Parliament and that it is dead, but he said that there must be effective service delivery - now I'm wondering who is going to do that, if it is not the active Members of Parliament?
Sixthly, to hon Steele, who said that activist people are the ones who will make an activist parliament. So we will start from the people and move to Parliament, then Parliament will be busy. He also emphasised the empowerment of committees and a relook at izimbizo and road shows.
Lastly, hon Mentor explained to some of our members what the People's Assembly and Taking Parliament to the People are. She also made an important point about transformation; that it is only a transformed parliament that could do whatever we want to do. Whether we give it teeth or not, it has to be transformed.
These are simply the remarks I wanted to make and, again, I would like to thank the hon members for taking part. I think it was a good debate. Thank you. [Applause.]
Debate concluded.