Panel to report on ‘transformational agenda’

President Jacob Zuma and Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa during the swearing-in of new members of Parliament in the National Assembly. Picture: Kopano Tlape/GCIS

President Jacob Zuma and Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa during the swearing-in of new members of Parliament in the National Assembly. Picture: Kopano Tlape/GCIS

Published Jan 24, 2016

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Parliament - Parliament has been stung by the reproach coming at the political establishment from all angles.

From surveys that show trust in public institutions and political representatives is evaporating, to protests crashing against their walls and the boiling over of internal tensions, legislatures have endured a turbulent year.

Along with the growing sense in society that democracy has not delivered on its promise comes the risk that democratic institutions will forfeit the faith placed in them to do the will of the people.

From there it is not far to go before they are seen, first, as irrelevant and, second, as obstacles to change insofar as they provide a semblance of legitimacy to what may be considered an unjust order.

That would be an odd place for our legislators to find themselves in, given that regular, free and fair elections have been a hallmark of the post-1994 dispensation, whatever its other flaws.

Yet the anger grows and the protests intensify, telling us something is broken in the loop that should exist between the will of the people and the exercise of public power.

Until last year most protests, especially the spontaneous ones not organised by trade unions or a handful of NGOs, had been directed at local government, grounded as they were in lapses in delivery or perceived or actual corruption at that level.

But the #FeesMustFall movement not only came to Parliament but swept right through it, giving a startling demonstration of what might happen if popular frustration were ever organised and channelled towards the national sphere of government.

It would be surprising, then, if the question were not being asked at the highest level, “What has gone wrong?”

Among the many ways this question will have to be approached, Speaker of Parliament Baleka Mbete announced this week she had established an advisory panel to review legislation passed in the democratic era and assess its impact in either enabling or holding back the “transformational agenda and pursuit of the developmental state”.

It is an impressive group of people, including some well-known critical voices, and the report they must submit in 12 months’ time is likely to contain fascinating insights into the reasons some of the laws passed to effect change have either failed or had unintended consequences.

We can expect to hear whether some laws negate one another by overlapping in unexpected ways, or were poorly designed to achieve their goals or have simply not been implemented properly.

The panel will focus on poverty, unemployment and inequality; the creation of and equitable distribution of wealth; land reform, restitution, redistribution and security of tenure; and nation-building and social cohesion.

Its report – following a public consultation process – would make recommendations on legislation that needed amending, loopholes that required fixing, and explanations for why implementation had failed, according to Deputy Speaker Lechesa Tsenoli.

As Mbete put it, the country had built an elaborate system intended to rid itself of apartheid inequality.

“Has it worked? The evidence recently tells us no. In certain pockets of our society, most definitely it hasn’t worked, if you listen to pronouncements by South Africans,” she said. “Why has it not worked? That’s what the panel will go into.”

Judge Navi Pillay, former UN Human Rights High Commissioner, said the panel would open up opportunities to the public to speak.

Even if, as has been suggested, this is an exercise in defusing frustration by demonstrating a willingness to listen – with an eye on the coming local government elections – it must, in itself, be considered a valuable one.

If nothing else it will provide society – and any government wanting to correct some of the legislative missteps – a concise record of what needs doing, on the legislative front at least.

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Political Bureau

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