ANC puts its MPLs under the microscope

THE 45 ANC members in the Bhisho legislature are under scrutiny to assess whether they have met their key performance areas since being sworn in 2014.

The process, which began early last month, is led by Fundile Gade, the party’s chief whip in the legislature.

The late performance, monitoring and evaluation minister Collins Chabane announced in 2009 that ANC deployees in the cabinet would have to sign performance contracts with the president. Similar contracts were signed by MPs and MPLs when they took office after the general and provincial elections in 2014.

Gade said at the beginning of May each ANC MPL received a booklet requiring them to give detailed feedback on their performance in a number of areas. These include:

● Accessibility to their constituency, cases reported to the office and progress made in resolving them;

● Legislature meetings attended, and reasons for being absent; and

● Policy discussions contributed to, including detailed evidence of the role played in crafting the policy.

“Once the form has been filled, I have the responsibility to have a sitdown meeting with the member and craft a report based on our discussions and the details included in the questionnaire.

“These reports will then be submitted to the [ANC] provincial secretary [Lulama Ngcukayitobi] to look into each case and compile a final report, which will be submitted to [ANC national headquarters] Luthuli House,” said Gade.

The other key performance area is conduct. Gade said so far, he had received no feedback about bad behaviour from MPLs.

“Each member has to understand that we are elected leaders and that the public is witness to the fact that we conduct ourselves as examples to society,” said Gade.

The process had started immediately after the 2014 elections, and two assessments have been conducted since then.

This one is the last before the party starts its process of crafting nomination lists for next year’s elections.

Gade said the ANC was confident that this endeavour would help the government reward good performance and detect bad performance as early as possible to ensure that corrective measures are implemented.

“We are not doing this to nail anyone in particular, but to help MPLS understand the importance of carrying out the mandate outlined in our election manifesto,” said Gade.