The ANC seems hell-bent upon rendering parliament an irrelevant institution. As a political correspondent in the 1980s I was supposed to report on parliament, but most of my energy and time were spent on extra-parliamentary politics, where the real political action was.

I wholeheartedly agreed with Van Zyl Slabbert when he resigned from parliament in 1986. It was a talk shop, a sideshow. It had little influence over PW Botha, his cabinet and the all-powerful State Security Council. They all regarded parliament as an unavoidable nuisance.

We're almost back there. But there's a big difference. In 1986 parliament was an apartheid institution in which the majority of citizens had no say. Today it is supposed to be a true People's Parliament, because we have a proper democracy now.

But the real action is at Luthuli House, Cosatu House, SACP Headquarters, Nkandla, the Gupta compound in Saxonwold and the Union Buildings - and at the offices of activist groups like Section 27, the R2Know Campaign, Equal Education and Corruption Watch.

I'm not knocking good, hard-working members of the opposition in parliament who are fighting a gallant battle against draconian legislation and government incompetence and excesses. They need to soldier on, especially in the portfolio committees; parliament remains a "site of struggle" for a better democracy.

Parliament is where we citizens turn our attention to when matters of grave national importance come before us. Like sending our soldiers to die in a foreign land. Like a serious threat to our national pride, our security and our sovereignty. That's when we want the people whom we had elected as our representatives to speak on our behalf in our parliament.

But Number One, president Jacob Zuma, did not bother to tell parliament or ask for its agreement about the latest military adventure into the Central African Republic after the circumstances had changed on the ground. Fourteen South Africans died in a country with whom we had no historic, economic, cultural or even diplomatic ties, and we still don't know why.

The clearest example of the ANC's contempt of parliament came last week.

When Number One's best friends, the Gupta family, flew their wedding guests into our main air force base, the government took notice of the national sense of revulsion and hastily launched an investigation into its own conduct, which delivered a report with little credibility.

There was no credible way to deny a request to have the matter debated in parliament. Still, the man at the very centre of the storm, the man known as Number One, was absent.

I watched the stormy debate and witnessed Speaker Max Sisulu struggling to rule on repeated references by ANC speakers on the report that "had been made public", statements queried by opposition members.

I was shocked to learn immediately afterwards that the report was withheld from members of parliament, but released to the media outside parliament as the debate commenced. It was not given to opposition members of parliament for the simple reason that it would have given them extra ammunition to criticize the government. It was as cynical and contemptuous as that.

I don't know who made that decision, but I know who was ultimately responsible for that act of blatant disrespect of parliament: ANC chief whip Mathole Motshekga.

According to the ANC's own website, the "ultimate responsibility for the actions of all ANC MPs" rests with the chief whip; he is the "the political manager and strategist for ANC Caucus and acts as a communications link between ANC MPs and the Executive"; he "has the overall responsibility to ensure that the business of the House is conducted and delivered efficiently".

It was under Motshekga's watch that parliament's role had noticeably declined. He is probably the worst party whip ever to work in South Africa's parliament. Even his own caucus colleagues are unhappy with his performance and his attitude. My view of him is that loyalty to Number One and to Luthuli House weighs much heavier on him than the interests of democracy and that he sees parliament as just a necessary evil that has to be managed in the interests of the party.

If ANC MPs believe in the importance of parliament and take their oath seriously, they would make their criticism known and push for a new chief whip. If they don't, we will blame the denigration of parliament on them.

When citizens go to vote in next year's general election, they won't be voting for a president or a cabinet. They're electing members of parliament.

Our democracy is still young and is still developing. Citizens need to see democracy in action in parliament. They have no way of seeing into the dark rooms where the president, the leaders of the ruling party or the securocrats meet to make decisions.

This article first appeared in the Cape Times.

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