The National Assembly still has to vote on the issue but the decision by parliament’s rules committee that a dedicated committee be established to oversee the president has ruffled the ANC’s feathers.
The presidency is overseen by a number of separate committees that look into aspects of its work but no specific committee monitors the work of the presidency in its entirety. With the functions of the presidency mushrooming — most recently to include oversight of state-owned enterprises — there is a need for a holistic overview of its work rather than this being segmented into its different activities.
There is a need, for example, for the president to account for the about R600m allocated to it by the National Treasury; for the organisational structure of the entity to be examined; and for the exercise of the powers of the president to be scrutinised. While there are committees dealing with aspects of the presidency’s work, there is a strong argument in favour of there being a dedicated committee.
It has long been a demand of the DA — now an ANC government of national unity partner — that such a committee be established but the ANC does not believe it is necessary. The DA’s motion at last week’s meeting of the rules committee that this be done was supported by the MK, EFF, Freedom Front Plus and other parties and the matter will now go to the National for a vote. The IFP supported the ANC.
A subcommittee of the rules committee has been tasked with finalising the way the committee on the presidency would operate, as well as the allocation of seats to each of the parties represented in parliament.
ANC chief whip Mdumiseni Ntuli says the ANC does not believe there is any value to be gained by establishing yet another oversight mechanism on the presidency, when “functional and robust mechanisms” already exist.
Already accounts
The party’s response to the recommendation by the Zondo commission of inquiry that parliament consider whether it is appropriate for it to establish a committee for those activities of the president and the presidency that are not overseen by existing portfolio committees is to say that opposition parties have failed to demonstrate which areas of the presidency are not overseen by existing portfolio committees. They have also not been able to show where defects, if any, exist in the current oversight instruments.
The ANC’s argument is that the president already accounts to the National Assembly in the form of at least four question-and-answer sessions annually and twice per year before the National Council of Provinces. He also responds in writing to MPs’ written questions and tables a vote for the presidency in the National Assembly, where it is debated.
In addition to this, the ANC says all functions within the presidency are already accountable to a range of parliamentary committees, namely the portfolio committee on planning, monitoring and evaluation both for the department as such and for Stats SA; the committee on communications and digital technologies for government’s communications arm, the GCIS; the joint standing committee on intelligence for state security; the committee on women, youth and people with disabilities to oversee this work of the presidency; and the standing committee on public accounts to oversee work of the Special Investigating Unit, which acts only on proclamations issued by the president.
The trouble is that there is no opportunity to grill the president during question-and-answer sessions. He is entitled to give an evasive answer without follow-up questions necessarily taking the matter further.
Furthermore, there is little collaboration between parliamentary committees, which tend to operate in silos, so it is impossible to get a broad overview of the work of the presidency.
Obviously opposition parties such as MK would use a committee on the presidency to pursue their campaign against Cyril Ramaphosa, whom they would like to unseat. There is also little doubt that if such a committee had existed at the time of the scandal over the dollars stuffed into a couch at Ramaphosa’s Phala Phala game farm, it would have provided opposition parties with a platform to probe the matter.
The danger is that the committee would become a forum for political battles rather than acting to exercise oversight over the presidency. Which is perhaps why the ANC is so keen to protect its leader.
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