Africa-Press – South-Africa. Lawmakers believe that Parliament has long abdicated its responsibility in holding the state capturers’ to account.
On Saturday, President Cyril Ramaphosa tabled his 76-page implementation plan with Parliament and further outlined the plan in a public address on Sunday evening, promising a full-scale overhaul of South Africa’s “anti-corruption architecture”.
Parliament has vowed to go through Ramaphosa’s implementation plan on the Zondo Commission’s recommendations with a fine-tooth comb.
The commission found that in several instances Parliament had not been effective in holding the executive to account.
Some of the recommendations it made to remedy the shortcomings refer solely to Parliament’s internal arrangements while others relate to Parliament’s interface with the executive.
The commission also made findings and recommendations with regard to strengthening the auditing of organs of state and state-owned entities.
The Auditor-General’s office has developed a detailed response plan to the work of the commission.
During an address on Sunday, Ramaphosa was immensely vague on details of his implementation plan.
He said Deputy President David Mabuza, the leader of government business in Parliament, will interact with the presiding officers on the recommendations that relate to the interface between Parliament and the executive.
The National Treasury will engage with Parliament to determine the most appropriate way to give effect to the commission’s recommendations on the resourcing of Parliament, specifically with respect to its capacity to hold the executive to account.
DA chief whip Siviwe Gwarube said Ramaphosa’s address confirmed that it was indeed Parliament that must act as the last line of defence against state capture.
“The president simply provided an analysis of the Zondo judicial commission report instead of stating what the executive he leads intends to do to insulate government processes from grand theft again. The reality is that roughly R1 billion and six years have been spent on this commission, yet little action will be taken,” she said.
Furthermore, Gwaruve said Parliament must affirm its role as an independent arm of state that is constitutionally obliged to hold government to account.
“Speaker of the National Assembly Nosiviwe Mapisa Nqakula has effectively abdicated Parliament’s responsibility to this process and stated that the institution should wait for the president to table his implementation report. This is despite the fact that Parliament did not need to wait for the president before undertaking a review on its oversight mechanisms,” she said.
Gwarube said they would be writing to Mapisa-Nqakula to place the matter on the National Assembly programming committee on Thursday.
In the same meeting in May, Gwarube asked for Parliament to start work on the parts of the report that pertained to it, as the fourth part also raised Parliament’s role during the capture of Eskom.
She was stonewalled by high-ranking ANC MPs, including Mapisa-Nqakula, who insisted Parliament should only deal with the report after Ramaphosa tabled it and his implementation plan.
Parliament’s spokesperson Moloto Mothapo said the legislature’s presiding officers have already referred certain matters requiring direct action by Parliament to parliamentary structures for processing.
This is in addition to working on proper mechanism that will address the issues raised by the report of the commission.
“With the submission of the implementation plan by the president yesterday, which outlines how the executive will fulfil the remedial actions recommended by the commission, Parliament will begin a process of scrutinising the details of the plan as well as overseeing, through its oversight instruments, its implementation.
“The implementation plan will be brought to the attention of the Members of Parliament,” Mothapo said.
“Parliament is committed to ensuring that it goes through the report with a fine-tooth comb and puts in place the necessary mechanisms required to address the deficiencies identified by the commission,” he added.
Freedom Front Plus leader Pieter Groenewald said Ramaphosa went so far as saying that he alone had the final say on whether any of the recommendations in the Zondo report would be executed.
“He added that any decisions regarding action to be taken against a member of the executive authority rests with Parliament, which means that all members of Cabinet will still enjoy the full protection of the ANC. The president took no decision nor did he announce any steps that will make any state capturer lose any sleep. It is extremely disappointing,” he said.
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