Speech by Ms SA Seaton IFP MP
BUDGET VOTE 2

Madam Speaker, Hon Members

We have come a long way over the past 11 years of democracy, we have achieved much and yes, Parliament has a lot to be proud of, but Madam Speaker there is much still to be done, much to be improved and much that we cannot and should not be proud of.

Madam Speaker I have the utmost respect for you as Speaker and as a compassionate person, always readily open to suggestions, considerate of the concerns of others and acutely aware of the needs and wellbeing of individuals and Parliament.

I have had the benefit of having worked fairly closely with you over the past 11 years and have always found you to be very accommodating with regard to progress and development of our Parliament.

So when I raise concerns today Madam Speaker, I do so knowing that you will accept that there is no ill intention from my side, but a genuine concern that all is not well in the state of our Parliament!

It is true that we have developed tremendously in many areas over the past 11 years.

Our Parliamentary staff has seen some considerable changes and I would want to commend the many loyal dedicated officials who have continued to serve this Parliament and the members with distinction over the years. We need to thank those officials who have always gone the extra mile. I would especially mention the Secretary to the National Assembly and his staff, extend our appreciation to them, and thank those who have sought to rectify wrongs and taken bold steps to ensure improvement of processes that have caused concern.

I would single out the CFO who has sought to improve the capabilities of his staff and close the cracks in the system such as the issues that have led to the travel scam being brought to the fore, clearly indicating how excessive sums of money have been squandered as a result of years of undetected abuse of systems that were previously in place.

We have seen Members of Parliament trained in many areas of Parliamentary work, seen individuals specialize in specific issues, and we have experienced interaction with the International Parliamentary community in various conferences. Yet there are still Members of Parliament who are not familiar with the workings of Parliament, who do not understand the rules of Parliament and do not take their obligations seriously.

There is a great need for further training but committee specific training help our members to be specialists in their field/s of interest.

The time has also come to offer some training via Political Parties as opposed to training general, to provide funds for individual parties to train their members in specific areas of interest. Here I would use as an example the need to provide individual IT training on a one- to-one basis within the party caucuses, this would be far more advantages than providing a general training session that tries to accommodate all levels of competency.

Whilst on the issue of IT, whilst our network system has improved tremendously over the past few years, it still leaves a great deal to be desired.

The system is mostly inaccessible, slow; certainly not user friendly and frankly does not begin to measure up to world Parliamentary standards! Moreover, it does not really assist to make our communication all that much better. And if as I believe is intended that network is to be run by the SETAs, I express serious concern as to the security of individuals' personal emails being scrutinized by a government agency.

Communication in Parliament is in fact very poor, despite the many innovations that have been introduced into this Parliament; we still get to hear about important events and meetings on the day that they are scheduled to take place, instead of timeous notice having been given.

A classic example being the launch of the Vision and Mission of Parliament last evening, followed by a Dinner with the Presiding Officers suddenly being sprung upon us at the eleventh hour. Something that we have all worked long and hard for over a period of time, and most of us were unable to participate in what should have been a special event because we did not have sufficient notice.

The general administration of Parliament is appalling, meetings are called without prior notice or very short notice with long agendas with numerous important and lengthy attachments that one has not had time to peruse, therefore rendering the meeting unsuccessful perpetuating growing tendency to talk the talk but not walk the walk. We continue to take decisions to bring about change but continue to stay where we are on many important matters.

For years we have discussed the need for Members to be empowered to do their parliamentary work effectively, that Committees need to be adequately resourced with facilities, dedicated researchers and secretaries. That Whips need to be empowered to attend to their duties effectively.

Now it is is understandable that this all requires substantial funding and that as this could be a financial impossibility, but given Madam Speaker that despite continuously being told there is no money for additional travel vouchers for those members who are traveling back and forth balancing their political and parliamentary duties responsibly yet have run out of travel facilities, having been told that there are insufficient funds to improve committee resources, there are insufficient funds to provide individual members with personal secretaries etc, it is really very concerning to find that we are looking at an accumulated rollover for last financial year of approximately R114 Million. Parliament could have been empowered with those rollover funds and what is really upsetting is that the non-expenditure thereof impacts negatively on the followings years' budget and this has been going on for some time.

We have new computers and printers yes, equipment that members are having to pay for albeit at a depreciated rate. But this equipment is not up to the specifications that members had requested. Decisions are taken without consultation with members as to what equipment they will get. E.g. We requested reliable 4 in 1 HP printer/scanner/fax/copier at a cost of approximately R2000.00 and what do we get instead, a pathetic, small portable printer that is so slow and inadequate at almost the same price if not more expensive because officials have decided for us what we need. Why does this continue to happen?

Hansard continues to be horribly out of date. Whilst we supposedly have simultaneous translation; the quality thereof leaves a great deal to be desired.

The departments of Human Resources, Procurement and IT are underperforming.

Madam Speaker, we need to seriously address the inadequacies in the administration of Parliament and its committees!

Then there is still the issue of better and improved salaries for members, a matter before the Mosenecke Commission, but a matter that we should be pushing along. The general public are truly under the impression that members of parliament live in the land of luxury, without taking into account that members run two homes, two cars, that they pay their own way in carrying out constituency work, that they travel backwards and forwards most weekends attending to parliamentary work during the week and constituency work over weekends, that they work seven days a week and in fact only get some two weeks official leave a year. The public does not realize the state of the homes in which we are expected to live.

Madam Speaker members deserve to be fairly remunerated and they deserve to receive a decent pension at the end of their political careers, and we need to do something about that as a matter of urgency.

It is time to take the bull by the horns and provide this parliament and its members with adequate facilities, equipment and resources, Members should all be provided with personal secretaries.

Let us not see rollovers like this again in the future. Let us spend our budgetary allocation effectively and to the betterment of Parliament, providing the necessary tools for members to be effective, for Parliament to deliver to the people of South Africa.

We need to ensure that our decisions are carried through, that our plans are realized, that this Parliament really become a model to the world of how a Parliament should function.

We need to ensure that communication is improved, we need to play a genuine oversight role on Government, and we need to ensure that not only are our committees fully functional but also totally effective. We need to ensure that we have a Parliament that all South Africans can be proud of.

Madam Speaker, we wish you well, thank you for your dedication and commitment to this parliament and to the members.