ANC MPs WILL BE TOUGH ON MINISTERS NOT ATTENDING PARLIAMENT MEETIGS: MOTSHEKGA

The African National Congress will adopt a hard line against Cabinet ministers who fail to appear in Parliament as required by law, ANC Chief Whip Mathole Motsheka said today.

Addressing reporters together with the ANC Secretary General Gwede Mantashe following the first Caucus meeting in Parliament, the Chief Whip said new ANC MPs will not tolerate a situation where ministers frequently failed to attend Parliamentary meetings.

"Now is the time to do things differently so that we can speed up delivery to our people," he said.

Motshekga added that the ruling party had a responsibility to ensure that the government meets the expectations of citizens.

"Our primary responsibility is to serve the overwhelming majority of people who mandated us," he said.

The Secretary General told the briefing that the ANC would be reviewing the evaluation system of its public representative in this term of government.

"We are reviewing the evaluation of public representatives. There is agreement that it should be an annual exercise instead of linking it to the full term."

"Our link person will be the chief whips who will in return use their network to ensure that assessment is effective," he said.

The Secretary General said that the evaluation would cover the effectiveness in parliamentary work, the political work that public representatives are involved in, and the service rendered in the constituencies.

He said the ruling party will ensure that MPs did meaningful work in their various constituencies.

Statement issued by the ANC Parliamentary Caucus, May 5 2009

Click here to sign up to receive our free daily headline email newsletter