Key oversight visits cancelled as Parliament runs out of money

29 January 2017

I will be writing to Cedric Frolick, the House Chairperson: Committees, Oversight and ICT, to seek clarity on why several scheduled oversight visits have been cancelled in recent days.

The explanation provided for why some visits have been cancelled or postponed seem to suggest that Parliament doesn’t have the money to carry out oversight.

Members of the Portfolio Committee on Higher Education and Training were informed that a scheduled oversight visit to universities and colleges in Kwazulu-Natal were cancelled as there “were insufficient funds in the consolidated budget of the committees”.

Similarly, an intended study tour for members of the Portfolio Committee on Defence and Military Veterans has been postponed “on advice from the House Chairperson of Committees” and will now be “rescheduled for the next financial year”.

Oversight visits are a key mechanism for elected officials to familiarise themselves with the challenges facing South Africans and for gauging the progress (or lack thereof) of government initiatives.

It is alarming that oversight visits are being cancelled for financial reasons, yet the Secretary to Parliament, Gengezi Mgidlana, continues to undertake extravagant overseas jaunts, often with his spouse in tow. It is difficult to understand how Parliament can rationalise the need for Mgidlana to stay at five-star hotels or be chauffeur-driven in luxury Mercedes-Benz sedans whereas MPs are told there isn’t money to visit the dysfunctional University of Zululand amid a higher education crisis.

On 24 January, I wrote to the House Chairperson to ask if he had approved the cancellation of key committee meetings to allow “invited stakeholders … [to attend] the ANC National Lekgotla taking place during the same period”. In reply, Frolick stated that “the information at my disposal … do not support the assertion that Parliamentary business is cancelled for party political reasons [sic]”.

Yet despite assurances that Bathabile Dlamini’s recent travels to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, occurred in her official capacity as Minister of Social Development, media reports indicate that she was engaged in her capacity as ANC Women’s League (ANCWL) President. Coincidentally, or not, the ANCWL stated that the league was launching its task team and young women’s desk in Addis Ababa. Meanwhile, the minister ignored the DA’s call for her to attend a briefing to the Portfolio Committee on Social Development by SASSA precisely as the deadline for the transfer of the social grant system looms and no clear plan exists.

I appeal to the House Chairperson to kindly apply his mind a little bit better and provide a proper explanation for why oversight visits are being cancelled. Parliament’s job is oversight and the House Chairperson: Committees, Oversight and ICT must afford MPs an opportunity to do their jobs.

Statement issued by John Steenhuisen MP, Chief Whip of the Democratic Alliance, 29 January 2017