Chair, a multiparty delegation of the select committee undertook a study tour to the UK. The objective of the committee was to learn more about the petition and public participation system in the UK. The delegation learnt a lot more about the House of Commons, the British system of parliament, and more particularly about the manner in which the petition process works in the UK.
It was also a fruitful learning curve to establish that academics, the business fraternity, researchers, advisers, former politicians and administrators assist greatly in the process of public participation and petition activities. Although there are many successes, there are also many challenges pertaining to the processing of petitions and public participation activities.
We express the hope that the e-petition could be the direct solution to many of our country's challenges, although to a limited degree, because there are many people in the country who have no access to computers and the Internet. However, we recommend that through post offices, libraries and constituency offices we South Africans can achieve a successful breakthrough and resolve many problems through this method.
We also feel that there is a need to maximise the use of petitions and public participation processes through the establishment of larger petition offices in order to accommodate the many submissions that we have. For example, out of more than 20 petitions submitted between 2009 and 2011, we have not gone beyond half of them as far as processing is concerned. This is attributable to the scheduling, logistics and nature of the petition. Sometimes, even if we process some of them, more often than not we keep on doing follow-ups because the resolution and decision we take still go far beyond the meeting level, as we do the verification process as well.
Thus, as a committee we have also resolved that we should visit countries such as Germany and Australia in the first term of 2012 in order to expedite strong recommendations and initiate a lot of changes to our system in order for our people to gain benefit. We have also agreed as a delegation that we will invite international experts to give advice on the matter. We are also aware that it will be through the attendance of international capacity-building workshops and conferences that we can advance to the best levels we deserve.
We note that the Presidency, in acknowledging the importance of the petition office or committee, stated that if the public and everybody in the country understood the manner in which petitions were processed, there would be very few public outcries in which people complain of poor service delivery. Our main aim is to engage in a campaign to educate the public on how our petition systems work and how we can utilise the opportunities we have to assist our country in resolving the major problems we have. I present the report. [Applause.]