The ANC runs scared from questions on Parliamentary Protection Services

05 August 2015

Today, the ANC in Parliament have once again demonstrated complete and utter contempt for proper oversight and accountability when it abruptly and unilaterally adjourned a much needed sitting of the Parliamentary Oversight Authority (POA).

It is critical to note that the POA, established in terms of Section 4 of the Financial Management of Parliament Act, is the only mechanism dedicated to holding the Speaker of the National Assembly and senior parliamentary officials accountable for the expenditure of a R2.6 billion budget that has been footed by the ordinary taxpayer. 

At present the POA meets every three to four months which we submit is highly infrequent as it is. It therefore needs to be prioritised and its sittings interrupted only in extreme circumstances.

In a transparent attempt to evade accountability, the ANC in the Committee declared that the meeting was to be prematurely adjourned to attend the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA). This, quite simply, does not constitute an exceptional circumstance.

On the agenda for this morning’s sitting of the POA- at which the Speaker of the NA, Baleka Mbete, was absent- it was to discuss Parliamentary Protection Services.

While necessary steps are needed to uphold the decorum of the House, these decisions should be taken in a consultative multiparty forum of Parliament, like the Parliamentary Oversight (POA) which should be entrusted with overseeing and regulating the role of the Parliamentary Protection Services. 

The inappropriate closing of the meeting precluded Members of Parliament from getting answers to important questions which include:

The current strength of the Parliamentary Protection Services, the names and positions of each member;

The commencement date of each of these employees;

The current level of training achieved by each employee as well as any future training identified;

The recruitment process used to employ and screen each of these employees; and

The added cost to the taxpayer that already services an almost R3 billion budget.

These are important questions that need to be answered before these “protection” personnel are allowed onto the precinct and most likely wreak havoc as we have already seen in the recent past.

While the DA supports international interactions and engagements such as the CPA; it simply cannot be that it can be prioritised over a meeting of the POA which is crucial to the oversight of Parliament which the people of South Africa have elected us to do.

The DA will fight tooth and nail to ensure that the ANC’s fear of oversight does not erode the credibility of Parliament and that it’s officials are not left to their own devices and are held duly accountable.

Statement issued by John Steenhuisen MP Chief Whip of the DA, August 5 2015