Cape Town - The lack of space to hold committee meetings has come back to haunt Parliament this week, with unhappy MPs forced to hold meetings at various hotels scattered around the city.
The hiring of outside venues has cost Parliament almost R1 million since last year.
The use of outside venues means members of the public cannot attend the meetings and viewers at home cannot keep abreast of parliamentary proceedings on television on DStv’s channel 408.
This week members of the communications portfolio committee expressed their dissatisfaction about having to conduct the inquiry into SABC boss Ellen Tshabalala at the Cape Town Lodge hotel near Bo-Kaap. At one point Tshabalala didn’t have an appropriate place to sit and MPs had to move seats around to accommodate her.
Communications committee chairwoman Joyce Moloi Moropa said this week that it was difficult to work away from Parliament when one member requested a document and could not get it.
Members at one point were squabbling about seating arrangements.
“It is tedious to look for a venue outside if the venues are already taken in Parliament because we undergo a process of also applying for a venue and putting up a budget. We all intend to sit in Parliament; we don’t want to go outside. You can see we are even squashing here. It’s completely uncomfortable to be outside Parliament, so I actually indicate to members moving forward that let’s not really trouble one another about why this, why not that. In terms of venue it’s not our problem, it’s Parliament’s problem,” said Moloi Moropa, after some members questioned the venue.
She said Parliament did not have sufficient space and committees were accommodated on a “first come, first served” basis.
Parliament spokesman Luzuko Jacobs said there were more than 54 committees which had been established in the current Parliament with an average 40 committee meetings a week.
Parliament has 28 committee meeting rooms.
“While these meeting rooms are not sufficient to accommodate all of the committee meetings when they are all sitting during session, the 28 rooms themselves are not all big enough or suitable for committee meetings. Some can hardly accommodate members of the committee and the support staff, let alone members of the media and the public,” said Jacobs.
Jacobs said venue hiring for meetings of parliamentary committees that took place outside Parliament for 2013/2014 amounted to R930 000.
He said the challenge with venues “hinders committees in the exercise of effective oversight and facilitation of effective public participation”.
Last month Parliament's new presiding officers wanted the legislature’s abandoned multimillion-rand expansion programme to be implemented with immediate effect as a result of the space constraints.
The “space utilisation project” was estimated to cost about R1.4 billion the last time the matter came up in 2011.
The facelift would include a 1 500-seater chamber with a banqueting hall to be exclusively used for joint sittings at a cost of R487 million.
Political Bureau