INTERACTION BETWEEN PUBLIC REPRESENTATIVES AND PUBLIC IS NOT UNPRECEDENTED
4 October 2011
There are those who have sought to cast aspersions on the legitimacy of the ANC Caucus's public consultation process on the Protection of State Information Bill, which we announced recently in a statement.
The criticism emanates particularly from some opposition parties in parliament, who allege that the process is in conflict with the procedures of Parliament and therefore "unprecedented". Nothing could be further from the truth.
The constitutional function of Parliament is split in two: MPs' work that takes place at the seat of Parliament in Cape Town, such as in House plenaries and committees; and the second part is constituency work - which entails physical interaction between MPs and members of the public in their various constituencies.
For this reason, the ANC boasts over 250 parliamentary constituency offices spread across the country to ensure that it remains in touch with the people. Apart from quarterly parliamentary Constituency programmes, which is allocated for public interaction, the ANC Caucus has declared Mondays ‘constituency work days'.
Public interaction, which is a vibrant part of participatory democracy, is essential to and the lifeblood of our constitutional accountability. We take this aspect of parliamentary work seriously. It will be a tragedy if we, as the majority party in parliament, were to emulate the example of the DA whose MPs execute their parliamentary functions from the comfort of their air-conditioned offices.
The DA has reduced parliamentary opposition to desktop opposition, in which MPs' performance is judged according to the number of media statements they have issued. It is therefore understandable why the party will find a public interaction programme by public representatives an "unprecedented" phenomenon.
The practice of engaging with communities and seeking their views on a wide range of matters in this institution, including draft legislations before the Houses of Parliament, is not new. We have done it before, and our resolve to continue the practice with regard to the Protection of State Information Bill in the coming weeks remains on course. As we have said before, our MPs will also use the constituency work period to interact with their constituencies on the Bill.
The process of taking the Bill to the public, particularly in the remotest parts of our country, will give people - regardless of their political affiliation - an opportunity to receive first hand information on the content of the Bill so that they can make up their minds. This is what the Freedom Charter meant when it said "the people shall govern". Parliament therefore cannot make laws on behalf of the millions of the country's citizens on the basis of pressure from lobby groups made up of a handful of members.
Caucus is already receiving comments from members of the public since our announcement last week. On Monday, a meeting of senior ANC public representatives deployed in all the three spheres of the legislative sector took place in Johannesburg to prepare for the public engagement programme. We will, in the next few weeks, announce details of the programme to take place in the provinces.
We will, on the basis of the views expressed during the engagement process, take a decision on the way forward regarding the Bill.
Statement issued by the Office of the ANC Chief Whip, ANC Parliamentary Caucus, Parliament of the Republic of SA, Cape Town, October 4 2011
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