Committee set up for Motlanthe report

Parliament has taken the first step to deal with the high-level panel report chaired by former president Kgalema Motlanthe. It has appointed an ad-hoc committee to deal with the report’s recommendations.

Parliament has taken the first step to deal with the high-level panel report chaired by former president Kgalema Motlanthe.

Parliament has appointed an ad hoc committee to deal with the report’s recommendations.

The 17-member panel, which was headed by Motlanthe, was tasked with examining how laws passed by Parliament since 1994 had affected the lives of South Africans — especially with regard to poverty, inequality and job creation‚ the redistribution of wealth‚ land reform, rural development, security of tenure and restitution, and nation building and social cohesion. It also had to identify legislative gaps.

The panel’s report was compiled after extensive countrywide consultations and public hearings spanning over 22 months. It made recommendations on, among other things, how to accelerate land reform, transform the education system, deal with inequality and address the urban/rural divide when it comes to the implementation of constitutional rights.

It focused on about 100 laws. Its most controversial proposal was to dissolve the Ingonyama Trust, which is headed by King Goodwill Zwelithini and administers land in traditional areas (about 60% of the total land in KwaZulu-Natal) according to Zulu customary law. The panel recommended that there should be security of land tenure for people living in rural areas.

However, there are concerns that with the two-and-a-halfmonth parliamentary recess over June and July and the 2019 general election, the report and its recommendations could easily be forgotten and relegated to dusty shelves. It was submitted to Parliament in August.

There was agreement between the DA and the Inkatha Freedom Party that the committee should act as a “clearing house”, distributing recommendations to the relevant portfolio committees rather than trying to be what DA chief whip John Steenhuisen referred to as a “super” portfolio committee.

The multiparty ad hoc committee is expected to report back to the joint rules committee by May 15. It has eight members from the National Assembly and five from the National Council of Provinces. It will be chaired by NCOP house chairman of committees Archibold Nyambi and his counterpart in the National Assembly, Cedric Frolick.