Deputy Speaker, hon Deputy President, hon members and distinguished guests, Parliament is a prime institution of representative democracy in our country. It consists of different parties with diverse ideological orientation and constituencies. However, all parties in this Parliament agree with our strategic objective of creating a nonracial, nonsexist, united, democratic and prosperous South Africa in which the value of all citizens is measured by our common humanity.
We have all endorsed the strategic priorities of government. This means that nation-building, social cohesion and delivery of quality services to all South Africans, both black and white, should be common concerns of all of us. This institution should, therefore, serve as a critical forum and resource for the expansion of transformational policies.
The ANC is also committed to respecting the Constitution, the independence of the judiciary, regular multiparty elections, equality before the law, and the strengthening of Chapter 9 institutions.
The fundamental role of Parliament is that of nation-building, legislation and oversight. Through its committees, Parliament should participate in the strengthening of representative and participatory democracy, the processing of legislation and ensuring sound public finance management. Our oversight model requires the establishment of mechanisms and processes for increased oversight.
We have characterised this institution as an activist Parliament, and its constituency offices as one-stop centres which should be optimally used for the outreach of Parliament. These one-stop centres or Parliamentary Constituency Offices must form part of a public involvement strategy focusing on public education, social mobilisation for nation-building, social cohesion and provision of information and mechanisms for popular participation and accountability.
The current budget allocation to Parliament should serve as a resource to support the nation-building heritage initiatives, the needs of Members of Parliament, constituency work and research capacity that will bolster the quality of debate and strengthen the oversight role of Parliament. In addition to the ability to generate information, the ability to challenge reports and question information supplied by the executive remains a challenge for this Parliament.
Parliament must connect with the people and act as their voice. It is a central institution in the advancement of the policy of both representative and participatory democracy. Accordingly, it must not only serve as an important platform for monitoring and advancing the priorities of government, but must also connect with the people through one-stop centre Parliamentary Constituency Offices to ensure popular participation. These offices should also facilitate development to ensure that people become their own liberators from poverty and underdevelopment. The ANC has the primary responsibility to resource Parliament and improve the role it plays towards building a developmental state based on the Freedom Charter and our Constitution.
Working together with other spheres of government, Parliament needs to foster increased co-operation to ensure the socioeconomic upliftment of our people. Our Parliament is one that is robust but constructive in its work for the better life of our people. In this regard, Parliament stands for the aspirations and needs of our people in a programmatic manner. This means that legislation and decisions that are taken and passed by the people's Parliament must result in the achievement of our five priorities.
The ANC manifesto endorses the principle of accountability and oversight role of deployees of the ANC to accelerate service delivery to create a better life for all South Africans. The work of public representatives needs to focus on strengthening linkages between people and their elected representatives. The visits of the ANC to service delivery hotspots have shown that the people have confidence in this government. They are still looking towards it for better and quality service delivery.
People require public representatives and officials to connect with them, report back and communicate the challenges facing government. Such interactions - as we have seen, for instance, with Orange Farm, Diepsloot and Kya Sands - helped to address the so-called "service delivery protests" and restored the confidence of the affected communities in this government. This was an affirmation of the critical role of an activist Parliament.
On 25 May 2010 Parliament will celebrate Africa Day. This celebration will be used to raise awareness about the African Agenda and renewal and the key role of unity and co-operation for peace-building and development on the continent. The celebration will also highlight the importance of establishing friendly societies on the continent and beyond.
The recent enactment of the Money Bills Amendment Procedure and Related Matters Act of 2009 has deepened Parliament's authority as enshrined in the Constitution. The Act gives Parliament the powers, for the first time since 1994, to amend the Budget, thereby ensuring that it is synchronised with the priorities our people have set for us. The Act allows Parliament to establish a budget office and appoint a director who will oversee its management, as the Speaker pointed out.
The work of government has become complex; it sometimes requires Rules to be amended, a dedicated support system and the necessary skills. The continued development of members and the preservation of knowledge are of critical importance. These developments should be aimed at empowering members for oversight-related work in plenary, committee processes and constituency work.
Parliament is elected to represent the people, ensure government by the people under the Constitution and represent provinces in the national sphere of government. In this regard, Parliament has a responsibility to ensure that public forums form part of democratic processes by understanding the role of Parliament and its involvement in the processes. This places an obligation on Parliament to ensure that democratic processes are well known and that they reach all citizens of our country. Thus, Parliament in its nature is a nation-building institution.
Taking Parliament to the people, announced or unannounced visits, matters of public hearings during the processing of Bills and the invitation of the contribution of experts and civil society strengthen the people's Parliament and deepens participatory democracy. Parliament is constituted by the National Assembly and the NCOP. Therefore, the practice of taking Parliament to the people must involve both Houses and not only the NCOP as it is currently the situation.
Our position emphasises the need for effective oversight and the building of a strong activist Parliament. This implies that Parliament is expected to play a vigorous oversight role over government departments to ensure accountability in the use of budget and necessary interventions for the acceleration of service delivery. Effective parliamentary oversight has thus become all the more crucial to ensure that these new responses are devised and implemented with full transparency and accountability. Parliamentarians are in regular contact with electorates and are well placed to ascertain their views. They can subsequently raise people's concerns in Parliament and ensure service delivery.
The work and impact of Parliament must be realized in such ways that people are keenly made aware of the role of Parliament. Constituency offices must be optimally used for the outreach of Parliament. These must form the centre of a public involvement strategy focusing on public education, the provision of education and the provision of mechanisms of participation and accountability.
The ANC manifesto endorses the principle of accountability and oversight role of deployees of the ANC to accelerate services for a better life of all our people. The collective work of Parliament and that of individual members needs to focus on strengthening linkages between people and their elected representatives. Our public representatives must be assisted to hold public hearings and involve the public in legislation and issues before Parliament. Committees must ensure mechanisms of working within communities to enhance the understanding of the role of Parliament in society as a whole.
Our democracy is both representative and participatory, and the Constitution provides for public participation processes of Parliament. The current public participation processes have to be reviewed to ensure that all sectors of society, including the rural, the poor and the youth are provided with greater access to committees, public hearings and the overall processes of Parliament. Parliament, as a central institution for advancement of representative and participatory democracy, must provide a platform for robust debate, constructive information, the provision of hope and aspirations for the nation and the contestation of ideas in order to make responsive and legitimate decision for a better life for all our people.
Section 45 of our Constitution states that a Joint Rules Committee must be established for the purpose of making Rules and Orders concerning the joint business of the Assembly and the Council. This matter will be given appropriate attention. In this regard, the Joint Rules Committee is the appropriate body to advise Parliament, in respect of the joint business of Parliament, on the manner in which it conducts constitutional mandates.
The vigorous oversight role of Parliament will eventually eliminate the quantum of qualified audits. Irrespective of merits and demerits of such qualified audits and circumstances thereof, this situation has a bearing on service delivery to our people. In the same vein, our understanding of oversight role, transparency and accountability should not be seen as a matter of conflict. We need to work together in dignity and respect each other's mandates.
We must ensure that our Parliament is respected by our respective constituencies, both the ruling party and the opposition parties. Let us put the interests of this institution at heart primarily more than any other sectional interests. Our Ministers should remain vigilant in doing their parliamentary business, particularly in areas of questions to the Ministers. In this context, members put questions to the executive for oral or written reply. Questions may be put to the President, Deputy President or Ministers. We also know that questions and replies constitute the oversight function, including the tabling of reports in Parliament by institutions accounting to it.
Indeed, annual reports are tabled by national departments, state institutions supporting constitutional democracy and other entities. Our oversight model requires government officials and Ministers to appear before them. The importance of oversight's overarching role includes activities such as report scrutiny, briefings to committees and budget processes. These must advance quality service to the people and social justice.
The ANC is committed to good governance and quality service to our people. As a ruling party, it seeks to enhance accountability and high performance standards by its deployees. We all have to comply with created mechanisms to ensure the developmental improvement of services that are rendered to our people.
The promotion of ethical and democratic values and leading by example is rooted in the ANC traditions. We are in the forefront in leading society in the fight against corruption. Our movement and government must work towards ensuring anticorruption values in continental and international structures. Our election manifesto prohibits politicians from tempering with tender adjudications and calls for transparency in tendering systems. This is to ensure stronger accountability of public servants involved in tendering.
Section 35 of the ANC constitution urges cadres of our movement to improve the capacity to serve the people and to build contact with the people. We need to raise the profile of the ANC deployees and accountability to Parliament. Our sincere conduct will debunk some public perceptions that view Parliament positions as a source of personal riches. It will debunk the myth that associates Parliament's positions with the issuing of contracts to commercial companies and individuals. Our Parliament must be seen as an institution that is led by people with moral and political integrity.
In conclusion, the ANC as an organisation will promote accountability and greater performance of its deployees in all spheres of government. We need to improve services to our people in the broader scheme of things. The challenges of service provision arise not fundamentally from a shortage of people, but from problems of skills and systems to deploy its human and financial resources. Deputy Speaker and Deputy President, the ANC supports Budget Vote No 2: Parliament. I thank you very much. [Applause.]