UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL ASSEMBLY TUESDAY, 1 JUNE 2021 Page: 1 TUESDAY, 1 JUNE 2021
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UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL ASSEMBLY TUESDAY, 1 JUNE 2021 Page: 1 TUESDAY, 1 JUNE 2021 ____ PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY ____ The House met at 14:03. House Chairperson Mr C T Frolick took the Chair and requested members to observe a moment of silence for prayer or meditation. The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mr C T Frolick): Hon members, in the interest of the safety of all present in the Chamber, please keep your masks on and sit in your designated area. I also have to inform the speakers that will make use of the podium that unfortunately the timer is not working at the moment. We ask you to discipline yourself and stick to the allocated time that you have ... [Laughter.] ... although it will be ... I will be able to monitor the time, don’t worry. Right? I will be able to monitor it but please try as far as possible to stick to the time. If you do see an information technology, IT, technician coming in during proceedings, please be aware that they are trying to fix the system and for no other reason UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL ASSEMBLY TUESDAY, 1 JUNE 2021 Page: 2 will they enter the Chamber. The first item on the Order Paper is a motion in the name of the Chief Whip of the Majority Party. I now recognise the hon Chief Whip. NOMINATION OF MEMBERS TO FILL TRUSTEE AND ALTERNATE VACANCIES ON POLITICAL OFFICE-BEARERS PENSION FUND BOARD OF TRUSTEES (Draft Resolution) The DEPUTY CHIEF WHIP OF THE MAJORITY PARTY: Hon House Chairperson, I move: That the House— (1) notes the resolution of the House on 3 December 2020 electing four members as trustees and four as alternates to serve on the Political Office-Bearers Pension Fund’s board of trustees; (2) further notes that Ms J M Mofokeng, Member of Parliament, MP, who was a trustee, passed away recently, leaving a vacancy to be filled from the majority party; UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL ASSEMBLY TUESDAY, 1 JUNE 2021 Page: 3 (3) nominates Ms L F Shabalala, MP, to replace Ms J M Mofokeng, MP, as a trustee; and (4) further nominates Ms S R van Schalkwyk, MP, to replace Ms L F Shabalala, MP, as alternate. Motion agreed to. APPROPRIATION BILL Debate on Vote No 2 — Parliament: The SPEAKER: Hon Chairperson and hon members, the times have changed. The daily slog has not necessarily changed. We are still dealing with poverty, inequality and rising joblessness. The coronavirus pandemic has simply increased and exaggerated the contradictions under a nonperforming world economy which engender deep feelings of fear and frustrations. The unpredictable mutations of this virus, the impact on production and the number of deaths have not strengthened assurances about the future. Anxiety and depression have become common as the world awaits the vaccine that can guarantee life and a return to a situation where economic and UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL ASSEMBLY TUESDAY, 1 JUNE 2021 Page: 4 political forces are not sources of increased anxiety and alienation. Under these conditions, citizens have become vulnerable. The usual freedoms of thought, expression and association pale. We feel that in our personal spaces. We can no longer fully control our destinies. We must rely on the herd, on the collective, on the leadership for survival. So, we do support the work done by the executive during this period to preserve lives, jobs and the dignity of the many who are within our borders. We have done the right things. We have endeavoured to keep calm and positive about the future. We have accepted social distancing and masks, and we have accepted that social gatherings, funerals and churches must be changed to mitigate the speed of the spread of this virus. We have given voluntarily as this House to the Solidarity Fund to help those who are desperate, and some in this House have quietly adopted people and households. We have adjusted budgets as this House to help fund the procurement of vaccines and to enable the poor to eat. We have had to adjust to the new organisational and procedural solutions as Parliament to enable committees and plenary work to take place. We are ready to accept that the virtual, hybrid UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL ASSEMBLY TUESDAY, 1 JUNE 2021 Page: 5 and the work from home systems will be with us for a while. We must continue to hold the executive to account. We must represent the people within our borders and internationally. We must invest in our information communication technology, ICT, and relook our employment processes and models to adjust to the fast-changing world of work. The challenges of the lockdown notwithstanding, we managed to have oversight work, first in clusters and then as committees. We have produced 408 reports. We have had 40 oversight visits. Lawmaking sessions took place — 29 in the National Assembly and 25 in the NCOP. Sixty public hearings have been held. Interviews for crucial posts were held. Quarterly reports, the Budgetary Review and Recommendation Reports ... We have done our work. We have even managed to do our international work, as well as look at international agreements that we have had to process. This House has held 48 virtual meetings. As Parliament, we had our scheduled reassessment for Parliament’s Strategic Plan. We continue to focus on the resolve to strengthen our performance and to improve efficiency in lawmaking and oversight. The needs of a public representative to adequately represent the public means that we must constantly look at the performance of the committees UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL ASSEMBLY TUESDAY, 1 JUNE 2021 Page: 6 and the needs of the individual Member of Parliament. This means that we must also be satisfied with the administrative support to the committees. We must ask the following question. Is Parliament structured and resourced to enable members to represent? Is the institution able to help any member to represent, to inform or to educate? What must Parliament do to reflect the majority view without diminishing minority views? Members, you have criticised us, and we accept that we need to follow up on resolutions, undertakings and commitments made by the executive. We then asked ourselves whether Parliament was able to crack its own whip on itself and on the Cabinet on behalf of the electorate. We think that we are capable of doing that. Can we perform efficiently nationally and still be able to represent this country internationally? Can we afford to? What is the image about ourselves as this Parliament that we want projected around the world? We marked 25 years of our Constitution a few days ago. Are we still united in our diversity? Somebody asked me were we ever united in our diversity? Was it important for us to recognise that diversity? My big answer was yes. There was a big moment of opportunity, optimism ... [Interjections.] UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL ASSEMBLY TUESDAY, 1 JUNE 2021 Page: 7 The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mr C T Frolick): My apologies, hon Speaker. May I request that the person who interrupted the proceedings now to be removed from the virtual platform? Hon Speaker? The SPEAKER: Thank you. Is it possible for us to use our sorry past to create a better future where all will be equal, where peace and stability will be as important as portable water, where access to health care and safety in the private and public space is guaranteed? Can we grow a democracy that will survive hunger and chauvinism? We bid farewell to our Auditor-General, ntate Kimi Makwetu. May his gentle soul rest in peace. We had just given him teeth to bite away maladministration and financial misconduct. We hope that our first woman Auditor-General, Me Maluleke, will continue to push us to better results. We have filled some vacancies in the different institutions around our government. We have had a very good challenge with the filling of ... the National Youth Development Agency, NYDA, board. A good challenge because, as the Houses of Parliament, we have now learned not to just accept the reports from the committees. We have had to redo the recruitment and UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL ASSEMBLY TUESDAY, 1 JUNE 2021 Page: 8 placement processes. We acknowledge that putting together advertisements and interviewing candidates is not a requirement for you to become a Member of Parliament. We must however accept that we must take responsibility to recruit and to place fit and proper candidates, whilst not forgetting all those things that alienate South Africans, like ignoring gender inclusiveness, like geographical spread, like ignoring disability and accepting that we are a multiracial society that has accepted nonracism. This means that Parliament can ill afford ill-prepared advertisements, nonrepresentivity in shortlisting and unprofessional interviews. This means that we take responsibility as Parliament when we make recommendations, through this House, to the executive for people to get into very strategic positions. If Parliament lowers the guard, we will end up with below par performance in areas where the poor and the vulnerable deserve protection. We have adopted the Rules to enable Parliament to process matters relating to section 194 of the Constitution. These matters are not dissimilar to the Rules on the impeachment of the Head of State. We have recently made recommendations in our Rules to enable all elected constituencies to take part fully in such deliberations, whether it is section 194 — the removal of the Head of State. UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL ASSEMBLY TUESDAY, 1 JUNE 2021 Page: 9 The National Assembly has been cited in a number of court cases. Some challenges the validity of our Rules and processes, and almost the right to conduct our business as an arm of state.