Peace with Parliament: Roadmap for Defence Minister

Note to editors: This statement relates to the scheduled appearance of the Minister of Defence and Military Veterans, Lindiwe Sisulu, before the Portfolio Committee on Defence and Military Veterans at 10h00 on Thursday 29 July 2010 in Room V475 in the Old Assembly Wing at Parliament.

The Democratic Alliance (DA) believes that Lindiwe Sisulu, Minister of Defence and Military Veterans, has an ideal opportunity to turn around her fraught relationship with Parliament tomorrow when she appears before the Portfolio Committee on Defence and Military Veterans.

The minister is involved in political battles on two parliamentary fronts by resisting being properly accountable to both the Standing Committee on Public Accounts and the Portfolio Committee on Defence and Military Veterans.

The fact is that the minister needs Parliament to pass legislation that will assist her to reverse the decline of the defence force. However, rather than treating Parliament as a "friendly force" the minister treats Parliament like a "hostile force".

The minister is likely to be "all tactics and no strategy" tomorrow and default into her normal technical obfuscation when she explains why she is refusing to provide the portfolio committee with the reports of the interim National Defence Force Service Commission.

This is likely to lead to a showdown and further damage the relationship between the minister and Parliament.

It does not have to be this way.

The minister should instead avoid a showdown with parliament and outline "a roadmap to peace with parliament" which should include:

• making a clear statement that she recognizes that parliament has a constitutional duty to scrutinise and oversee the defence and military veterans department and that in future she will be properly accountable to parliament;

• announcing a date for the briefing by General Godfrey Ngwenya, Chief of the South African National Defence Force, on the combat readiness of the defence force;

• announcing a date when she and the defence department will meet and properly account to the Standing Committee on Public Accounts;

• release the reports of the interim reports of the National Defence Force Service Commission;

• release the reports of the Ministerial Task Team on Military Veterans;

• make a commitment to reply to and provide proper answers to parliamentary questions; and

• appoint a "fit-for-purpose" person in the largely dysfunctional ministry of defence to deal with correspondence, defence force related complaints and access to information requests which hardly ever receive a response.

This will go a long way to building up confidence and trust, and will be good for the defence force.

Statement issued by David Maynier, MP, Democratic Alliance Shadow Minister of Defence and Military Veterans, July 28 2010

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