Madam Deputy Speaker, hon members, the former Speaker, the hon Dr Frene Ginwala, commissioned consultants a while ago to produce a document detailing the challenges that faced our Parliament in relation to its oversight role.
The Report was produced in 1999, and was subsequently referred to the Joint Ad Hoc Sub-Committee on Oversight and Accountability, which I co-chaired with the most wonderful hon Ms Constance Nkuna.
There are members of this House who will remember this committee with the long name. The people who were quite instrumental were hon Mr John Jeffrey, Ms Dene Smuts, Mr Enver Surty, who was Chief Whip of the NCOP at the time, Mr Farouk Cassim and Lawrence Lever, former members of this House and the NCOP. We were capably assisted by Mr Kasper Hahndiek.
During our deliberations on our oversight role, we discovered two truths. The first one was that our Parliament is quite unique in its mandate and in its make-up. The second was that the expertise concerning this Parliament and the different aspects of our Constitution lies firmly here in Parliament amongst members themselves, many of whom have helped to fashion our Constitution.
The ad hoc committee presented a set of eight recommendations. It also went a step further and produced an implementation plan which was adopted by the Joint Rules Committee in 2003.
During the time that we worked with the subject we learned that oversight was definitely linked to the primary function of Parliament as the highest law-making authority. As such, Parliament has a vested interest in the implementation of the laws passed. But through oversight we as parliamentarians gain a unique insight into the capabilities of the bureaucracy.
Oversight, therefore, also allows law-makers to adapt laws to the capacity of the bureaucracy at different stages of its development. While not suggesting for a moment that bureaucracies shouldn't be challenged to transgress their limitations, it is also true that many well-meaning laws have gathered dust on proverbial shelves for the lack of implementing capacity.
While we strive to push the boundaries, we dare not set the bar so high that implementation is beyond the capability of a bureaucracy in transition, whether it is in the police service, social welfare, hospitals or schools - I see, hon Sybil Seaton, you were also part of that committee - yet as lawmakers our task should always be to ensure a constant striving to fuller attainment.
During my time as co-chair of that committee I had an opportunity to visit the House of Commons. This august House, upon which, by the way, many of our previous parliaments were based, has one of the finest reputations in the world. But it hardly, if ever, amends legislation tabled by the executive in the manner we do.
Their oversight over the executive is often very closely connected to the intrigues of persons in positions and personal lives. And there is a very close relationship between British MPs and the British media. However, the party whip still features quite strongly in that constituency basis, a system which has evolved over hundreds of years. It works for that society, but in a society such as ours that is in transition, where implementation and delivery are a challenge, this parliament's strength, I believe, is in the winning of small things. Small things like the delivery for the first time of water to small towns in far- off places; the issuing of an ID to an old lady who has never before been documented so that she can for the first time access her old age pension; the passing of uniform and appropriate sentences in the case of serious crimes, such as murder and rape - these are all small things won through oversight work.
These things happen every day because we as the representatives of the people concern ourselves with these issues. We could reprioritise our values and our discourses and deal with things in a different way, and we could become very popular and become household names ourselves. But I think we don't because when it comes down to it, to a person in this house, I would say with conviction that we hold high ambitions for this country and its people.
To strike a comparison, following the attacks on the Twin Towers on 11 September 2001, the world's media and politicians focused almost exclusively on terrorism, rendition military spending and war.
In his book, A Short History of Progress, Ronald Wright says:
First, terrorism is a small threat compared with hunger, disease, or climate change. Three thousand died in the United States that day; 25,000 die every day in the world from contaminated water alone. Each year, 20 million children are mentally impaired by malnourishment. Each year, an area of farmland greater than Scotland is lost to erosion and urban sprawl.
This Parliament has firmly understood through its oversight discourse over the past 15 years that much of the world's ills are bred from injustice, inequality and poverty. I have heard these and other messages constantly in various portfolio committees from various members from Health to Foreign Affairs.
This, I submit, is a worthwhile discourse for a worthwhile parliament. It may be stale news to some, but it is not about popularity; it is about our future, the future of our children, the future of our country, and indeed about the very survival of the human race on this planet.
There are many other issues that we will have to grapple with over time, given our vested interest in the efficient functioning of our courts. For instance, how do we hold the judiciary accountable without impinging on their impartiality? How do we hold organs of state, as defined by the Constitutional Court, accountable, given the definition of portfolio committees and their structures?
I believe that these issues that we have been in constant discussions about are worthwhile and as long as we are on a worthwhile course, I submit, we are on course.
The model that is being tabled today for adoption is a culmination of our collective efforts and in truth marks the beginning of a new chapter of this young institution which, on the eve of a new Parliament, it is apt to note, many of us have had a hand in crafting. Those who come after us will hopefully build on the foundations we have laid today to allow this body to take its rightful place amongst the foremost legislatures of the world. [Applause.]