Covid-19 increases Parliament’s resolve to embrace the 4th Industrial Revolution

In the Parliament’s Budget Vote, the Chairperson of the National Council of Province (NCOP), Mr Amos Masondo, gave a broad overview of how the NCOP fared in the last financial year and what it seeks to improve on,

Mr Masondo reflected on the impact on Parliament’s work of Covid-19 and budget cuts, as well as Parliament’s swift adjustment to such challenges. In response to Covid-19, he stated: “We responded quickly and decisively by adopting virtual and hybrid platforms to ensure that we fulfilled our constitutional mandate whilst minimising the risk of transmission in the parliamentary precinct.”

While Parliament embraced the Fourth Industrial Revolution in conducting its work, the advent of Covid-19 hastened this resolve. “Our view is that the impact of the ‘new normal’ will require Parliament to continue to accelerate its digital journey.” He conceded that capacity will have to be built to ensure that Members and staff are able to adopt and embrace these new technologies and capabilities.

Despite challenges, the digital migration has increased public participation. “The majority of the meetings of committees, public hearings and plenaries of the Houses of Parliament were broadcast and streamed live on social media channels and radio, and this increased the level of public access and participation in the work of Parliament,” he added.

Mr Masondo said Parliament is also on course with its plans towards free-to-air television and the creation of radio broadcast services that will sustain over 90% awareness levels and continue to boost participation levels.

In spite of challenges, Mr Masondo pointed out that the NCOP adopted 25 Bills, forming part of the NCOP’s contribution to bettering the lives of the people. In line with its constitutional mandate to protect the integrity of the three spheres of government, Mr Masondo said: “We processed 14 notices of intervention in the local sphere of government. But we remain worried by the increase in the number of repeat interventions.”

One of the critical interventions in this financial year, he said, is the inception of an oversight plan to coordinate oversight priorities and activities of committees, Houses and legislatures, including changes to the parliamentary programme to provide more time for committee and constituency activities.

Amidst the need to improve MPs’ law-making and oversight capacities and to ensure Parliament is innovative in executing its mandate, Mr Masondo mentioned the impact of budget cuts. “There are projections of R257 million cuts in 2021/22, R339 million in 2022/23 and R296 million in 2023/24.” This will put a squeeze on Parliament’s strategic plans and Parliament has therefore called on Treasury to consider parliament’s budgetary baseline review.

Participating in the debate, Ms Sonja Boshoff, expressed concern about the lack of robust engagement with the legislation that comes before the NCOP. “This contributes to the NCOP simply rubberstamping the National Assembly’s decisions. The NCOP must take its lawmaking mandate seriously,” she reiterated.

Ms Dikeledi Mahlangu said the NCOP’s work is highly complex and that the workshops offered to Members of Parliament (MPs) to familiarise themselves with its work are insufficient. Turning to law-making, she remarked that the legal interpretation of law during law-making is critical. Instead of being capacitated with this skill set, “we are made to rely on the technical assistance of Parliament’s legal department. As a result, we become dependent on them and we are never in a position to master it”.

She said this applies to oversight as well. “During our orientation, we are not equipped with the necessary skills to analyse policies, to have consummate financial acumen, monitoring and evaluation capabilities to conduct effective and efficient oversight over the provinces, departments and the complex web of state-owned enterprises, which all require different skills sets,” she said.

Mr Moletsane Moletsane said Parliament’s 8.7% cut is higher than that of the government departments. “How is Parliament expected to fulfil its mandate when its budget is lower than those it’s meant to oversee?” he asked.

Making an analogy to underscore the effect of budget cuts, the House Chairperson for Committees, Mr Jomo Nyambi, said: “How do you expect under-resourced police officers to pursue wealthy criminals?” Comparing South Africa to the United Kingdom (UK), he said: “In the UK, a committee Member has more than five assistants, ranging from legal and policy experts to economists if need be in order for the committee Member to have sufficient support to conduct his or her work efficiently. With so much cuts, that is a bridge too far for us.”

The Chief Whip of the NCOP, Mr Seiso Mohai, said there is a growing realisation that the constitutional role of the NCOP needs to be reviewed in order for it to play a catalytic role in provincial matters, local government and traditional authorities.

This review would frame the new conceptual and strategic direction of public participation and should consist of stakeholders from government and civil society to academia. This will assist the NCOP to have an outcomes-based approach that “measures its success and its failures objectively”. It will also assist the NCOP to rise and claim its rightful role in the intergovernmental sphere of the state. “And it’s necessary because we have far greater battles ahead.”