New NCOP emphasises need to work together
WORKING together and putting the interests of the people first was the common message when the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) was reconstituted yesterday.
Speakers at the first sitting of the NCOP were emphatic that provinces should work together to raise issues and that the needs of the people be realised.
Former City of Johannesburg mayor Amos Masondo was elected as chairperson, taking over from Thandi Modise, who is now Speaker of the National Assembly.
Former Northern Cape premier Sylvia Lucas is the deputy chairperson and Seiso Mohai continues as the chief whip.
The EFF’s Kenny Motsamai also took up his seat as permanent delegate for Gauteng after Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng ruled that his conviction took effect after the Constitution was adopted in 1996.
Motsamai was convicted in 1989 for the murder of a traffic officer in a PAC-sanctioned bank robbery.
Addressing the NCOP, Masondo said delegates should remind themselves the NCOP played three basic functions – representative, legislative and oversight, ensuring that government was kept accountable.
“Let me take this opportunity to reassure you that we will do all we can to master and deepen the art of doing. We will not merely dwell on matters theoretically, as important as this might be,” Masondo said.
He also committed to do his best with integrity, guided by constitutional values.
But DA MP Jaco Londt, who spoke on behalf of the Western Cape delegation, said Masondo had big shoes to fill after taking over from Modise.
“I do hope you will follow the example she has set,” he said before urging they put South Africa first when they serve in the NCOP.
The EFF’s Nkagisang Koni said: “I hope you are not to be biased. I hope you will be consistent. It is, indeed, huge shoes you fill today.”
She urged Lucas and Mohai not to be biased, but to work together for the masses they represented.
Premiers used the first sitting to express goals for their provinces.
Gauteng Premier David Makhura said one of the first things he wanted NCOP to look at was the size of its legislature.
North West Premier Job Mokgoro said his rural province had witnessed public protests with communities raising complaints on cross-cutting issues.
Mokgoro, whose province placed several municipalities under administration, said there was a dire need to place much more emphasis on intervention in failing municipalities.
“This should be done not only in the North West, but to jack up service delivery in all struggling municipalities across the country as these were the coal face of service delivery,” he said.
Northern Cape Premier Zamani Saul said the issue of review of formula of the equitable share – allocations made by National Treasury to provinces based on population should be revisited.
KwaZulu-Natal Premier Sihle Zikalala said they should continue to work together as provinces to raise issues that affected their respective provinces.
“We want to remind this house that it derives its existence from the will of the people as they expressed themselves on May 8 in the elections.
“We should accept and work together and represent South Africans genuinely and pursue their interests,” Zikalala said.