A visit to a Khayelitsha Constituency Office

The ANC has two constituency offices in the Khayelitsha area. People’s Assembly decided to pop into the one on the corner of Spine and Ntlazana Road to get an idea of what kinds of services it provides.

Constituency offices were set up to so that people can have direct contact with their representatives as a means to improve accountability and democratic participation. These offices serve as centres of information on government programmes.

The Spine Road office is part of the ANC Caucus Support Services, which reports to the ANC Chief Whip. The Minister of Home Affairs, Minister Naledi Pandor has been assigned this constituency. People’s Assembly caught up with the woman responsible for the day-to-day running of the office, Mirriam Hlazo. She has been working at the office since 2006.

Mirriam Hlezo, Administrator at ANC's Spine and Ntlazana Road Constituency Office

“People come here for their own problems because this is their parliamentary office. If they have problems with social grants, ID problems, if they need school bursaries then they come to this office and we try to help them”. People also come here to get help with their CVs, explains Hlazo, showing a pamphlet that gives advice on how to type up a CV.

"We then refer the issues to the MPs and give a report back and sometimes we manage to solve the problems” said Hlazo.

She tells People’s Assembly that she is the only employee at the constituency office but is sometimes assisted by volunteers and councillors.

With elections round the corner, Hlazo spends a lot of her time making photocopies of "street sheets" for door-to-door campaigns and organising public meetings with community members. The office is open Monday to Friday from 8.20 am to 4.30 pm. Material about the ANC, helpful pamphlets on paying taxes as well as well as NGO publications are available.

When asked if people understand what a constituency office is there for, she replies, “People understand that Members of Parliament come here to Khayelitsha to service them, to give them information and answer their questions. Members are supposed to be here each and every Monday”.

Hlazo explains that because of her busy schedule, Minister Pandor usually only comes down to Cape Town from Pretoria once a month. “She doesn’t want to stay in the office; she always wants to be with people so she goes to visit some of the projects here in Khayelitsha. “There are a lot of schools, crèches, partner NGOs like Rape Crisis and projects for disabled people that she wants to check up on”.

She goes on to explain that if her office wants to do outreach programmes, many of them educational in nature that they host these in school halls, then she needs to apply to the ANC parliamentary caucus to secure funding. They usually organise public events on special days like Heritage and Africa Day.

Hlazo’s office also collects books for libraries and crèches and provisions such as blankets and tinned food for families affected by fires. She is involved in coordinating women’s right protests, most recently one outside the Khayelitsha court during the trial of a man who raped and murdered his mother.

Peoples Assembly wants to find out what is happening at constituency offices and if these activities are effective. We are interested in the views of both ordinary people as well as the administrators working in these offices. Kindly send your contribution to contact@pa.org.za