Madam Deputy Speaker, hon Speaker and hon members, I'd like really to go back to basics and look at the Constitution and what it says about what Parliament should be doing. The most important section is section 42(3) which reads:
The National Assembly is elected to represent the people and to ensure government by the people under the Constitution. It does this by choosing the President, by providing a national forum for public consideration of issues, by passing legislation and by scrutinising and overseeing executive action.
There are two other sections, the first being section 57 (1)(b) which reads:
The National Assembly may -
(b) make rules and orders concerning its business, with due regard to representative and participatory democracy, accountability, transparency and public involvement.
The third section I'd like to read is section 57(2)(b) which provides that:
The rules and orders of the National Assembly must provide for -
b) the participation in the proceedings of the Assembly and its committees of minority parties represented in the Assembly, in a manner consistent with democracy; These are the three fundamental sections of the Constitution which define what we do here. In terms of these sections we have a proportional representation electoral system. This means effectively that the amount of support the party receives from the electorate is directly translated into seats in the National Assembly.
This contrasts with a first-past-the-post constituency system, as in Britain, where the support in the House does not reflect the overall electoral support. So in Britain, in the last election last year, the Conservative Party got 36,1% of the vote but 47,1% of the seats in the House. The Labour Party got 29% of the vote but 39,7% of the seats and the Liberal Democrats got 23% of the vote but only 8,8% of the seats.
In South Africa, as I said earlier, it is different. The votes you get from the electorate translate directly into seats in the House. The ANC received 65,9% of the votes in the 2009 election and thus has 66% of the seats in the House. Similarly, the DA received 16,6% of the votes and have 16,75% of the seats. We must note that this is less than a quarter of the seats in the house.
Unfortunately this fact often tends to get missed by some commentators and sections of the media. It's unfortunate, when one reads media reports on the activities of Parliament, for example the budget debates or debates on a Bill, that the media focus on what the Minister said, and then on the opposition. The ANC speakers who spend time on preparing speeches generally get ignored, yet these people represent 66% of the electorate. As the President remarked during the reply to the Presidency Budget Vote debate last week, the Cape Times headline reporting on the debate reads, "MPs launch attack on Zuma". However, it was only some of the opposition MPs, and the combined opposition is only 36% of this House.
Similarly, when one says, as the hon Mulder does, that we are failing the people, which people is the hon Mulder talking about? The Freedom Front Plus got 0,83% of the votes in the 2009 election. [Applause.] Are those the people that you are referring to?
Similarly, when one listens to Mr Ellis and his desire for opposition days - that is 36% of the House if you take the whole opposition - it is quite clear the opposition is not united because it's only the DA that is opposing the parliamentary Budget Vote. Most of the other parties have indicated they support the vote. So we must we have an opposition day for 16% of the members? [Interjections.]
There is a constitutional requirement for public consultation that I read earlier from the Constitution. All Bills have to be tabled to be advertised for public comment and, if there is public interest in the Bill, public hearings must be held. Laws are struck down if this is not done. This is a requirement, that Members of Parliament must consult the public. We must listen and consider the inputs. However, we cannot lose sight of the fact that we have an electoral mandate to pass legislation. We have been given that power by the electorate and every five years we have to go back to them, and we must exercise that power.
We have to listen, but we don't necessarily have to agree with the representations and implement them. This is the fact that often gets forgotten by people who have resources, who feel that they are right and the electorate is wrong and they are able to lobby effectively. They then want Parliament to follow the interests of a few, rather than the electorate and the mandate that put us here. [Applause.]
With regard to the participation of minority parties, these are well represented, in spite of the litany of lamentations that come here. They are well represented in the running of the affairs of Parliament.
There is the Chief Whips' Forum and the Programming Committee, which Mr Davidson hardly ever, if it all, attends. The Rules provide for the Chief Whip of the Opposition to be a member of that forum. This is an opportunity, Mr Davidson, to make the programme more exciting, but you are not making use of it. Look at the Rules, Mr Davidson. The Chief Whip of the largest opposition party is a member of the Programming Committee. You may have interpreted the Rules your own way to suit yourself. If you participated then maybe you could give us this better programme that you are talking about. [Applause.] The point I'm really making is that the structures are there, but unfortunately the opportunity is not taken, but that is their right.
I'd like to read a quotation that I was given. Can you listen to this quotation? I have edited it slightly. It reads:
The government in many instances neither replies to questions nor gives direct answers. Sometimes the opposition has trouble getting straight answers. It further puts pressure on democratic mechanisms in the legislature by unilaterally removing interpellations from the agenda without giving any reasons.
That's the quotation. You may agree with it. As I said, I've edited it slightly. It's a quotation from Mr Pierre Uys, the Chief Whip of the Opposition, the ANC opposition, in the Western Cape legislature. The quotation actually reads:
The DA-led government in many instances neither replies to questions nor gives direct answers. Sometimes the opposition has trouble getting straight answers. It further puts pressure on democratic mechanisms in the provincial legislature by unilaterally removing interpellations from the agenda without giving any reasons.
What I'm saying is that it's quite ironic, because the issues you are complaining about here with the ANC-led national government, the ANC is complaining about in the provincial legislature.
In the local government elections we heard you trying to tell us how good the DA were at governance, but look at the way you are running your Western Cape legislature. Here is another quote from the ANC in the provincial legislature:
The DA is continuing on its hellbent way to close down the democratic space for debate and oversight in this parliament.
This was a response to a ruling by the provincial Speaker, when an ANC member was absent, for his or her question not to stand over. Sittings of the House also had to be cancelled because of a dispute that the legislature had with Hansard. It works both ways.
An issue that I also want to respond to is the complaint from some of the speakers about the debates on national days. They said they didn't like debates on national days. Again, which people put us here? The people of this country have national days and they want us to debate them. In the minority parties you might have an interest in other issues, being debated, but I think you also have to accept that there is majority and there is a mandate.
Basically, what I'm saying, and the main point I want to make, is that we should respect the electorate, the mandate of whom we have. We may feel that we know more than the electorate do, we may feel that they should have voted differently, and we may wish, in fact, that they had voted differently and given a different mandate, but that is the mandate they gave us and that is the reality of democracy, and we have to respect it. I thank you. [Applause.]