Cape Town - Later this year, South Africans will have the opportunity to discuss how the legislation Parliament passes impacts their lives.
This, said former president Kgalema Motlanthe on Tuesday, was the true value of the 17-member Panel on Assessment of Key Legislation he had been appointed to chair.
“We will draw from people’s lived experiences, how this legislation impacts on their lives,” said Motlanthe.
“This work will help us find out how this affects the poorest of the poor to the investors,” he said.
The work of the panel, Motlanthe said during his media briefing in Cape Town, had begun in January in this year when it was announced by Speaker Baleka Mbete.
Its mandate, to analyse the work of Parliament and the success or failure of its legislation.
Motlanthe said the 17 members, all appointed by the Speaker’s Forum, had divided itself into three sub-committees to address key areas under its mandate.
One of the sub-committees was aimed at analysing and critiquing legislation which deals with the triple challenges of poverty, unemployment, and inequality. It also looks at the creation and distribution of wealth. This sub-committee includes the likes of economic development expert Professor Alan Hirsch.
Another sub-committee will work with land issue-related legislation and includes an expert in the area, Dr Aninka Claasen.
The third sub-committee is headed up by internationally renowned Judge Navi Pillay and includes former chair of President Jacob Zuma’s advisory council, Yvonne Muthien. Their work will involve issues of national cohesion.
Pillay said she had been in high-level international meetings where the mandate of the panel had been well-received.
“South Africa is the first country in the world to undertake this, to scrutinise their own work,” she said.
Pillay said the work of the Panel as a South African example, could again serve as an example to the rest of the world, as the transition to democracy once did.
“Parliament has taken the initiative and the Speakers Forum has acted on it,” said Pillay adding that no country has gone this far to hold itself accountable.
“This is not going to be an empty exercise,” she said.
In addition to engaging with members of the public across all nine provinces – a consultation process tipped to be as extensive as that for the drafting of the Constitution – the panel would also commission work from experts in certain areas.
They would also collaborate with existing institutions.
“We don’t want to reinvent the wheel,” said Motlanthe.
Motlanthe also addressed the matter of apparent growing discontent with government, illustrated by service delivery and student protests.
Instead of deterring the public from engaging, Motlanthe said this would spur them to attend the meetings where they would have the platform to express how they felt Parliament’s work had failed them or improved their lives.
“This exercise is the right forum to do that kind of work,” said Motlanthe.
Public engagements would begin after Local Government Elections in August and continue until February 2017.
Thereafter, a report of the collated recommendations of the panel and the public would be made available.
Other members in the panel are former minister of housing Brigitte Mabandla; former FirstRand chief executive Paul Harris; former auditor-general Terence Nombembe; former Reserve Bank governor Tito Mboweni; Youth Council President Thulani Tshefuta; esteemed academics Professor Haroon Bhorat who is also a member of the World Bank Commission on global poverty, Elebohile Moletsane, Viviene Taylor, and Olive Shizana; and the executive director of the Economic Justice Network, Malcolm Damon.
African News Agency