Deputy Speaker, Acting President, Ministers, Deputy Ministers, Members of Parliament, comrades and friends, I rise on behalf of the ANC in support of Parliament's Budget Vote. In doing so, I would like to address the important matter of the relationship between the legislature and the executive.
We believe that the maxim, "Working together we can do more", applies also to the relationship between the legislature and the executive. The relationship between the legislature and the executive should be a complementary and mutually reinforcing working relationship that contributes in a dynamic way to the realisation of the needs and aspirations of all South Africans - in short, an activist Parliament in a developmental state.
Every constitution arises from and should be understood in a particular historical context. When we transpose constitutional discourses from one context to another, we must do so with care. Much can get lost in the translation. Carelessly transplanting a healthy and beneficial plant from one soil type to another can result either in the death of the plant or its metamorphosis into an invasive weed that displaces and kills indigenous plants.
In the same way, doctrines such as that of the separation of powers must be dug up with caution out of the soil of the struggles against absolute monarchy and must be carefully planted in the soil of a constitutional garden nourished by the struggle against colonialism and apartheid in which millions are waiting to harvest the fruits of unity, nonracialism, nonsexism, democracy and prosperity.
As in other constitutional democracies, entrenched in the Constitution of our Republic is the separation of powers between the legislature, the executive and the judiciary. However, the Constitution does not completely separate the powers of the different components of the state. Instead, the Constitution requires all organs of state to contribute towards realising the vision and objectives of the Constitution.
In setting out a framework for co-operative governance, our Constitution describes the different spheres of government as being distinct, interdependent and interrelated. Our Constitution also enjoins all spheres of government and all organs of state within each sphere to work in a co- operative manner. The Constitution requires members of Cabinet to be accountable to Parliament and to provide Parliament with full and regular reports concerning matters under their control.
Moreover, the Constitution also subjects the continuation of government to the will of Parliament, which embodies the will of the people. In theory and in practice, the Constitution of South Africa creates what our colleague in the Gauteng provincial legislature Firoz Cachalia refers to as a parliamentary executive which is accountable to Parliament.
In requiring all state organs, including the legislature and the executive, to advance transformation of society, the Constitution can never have intended organs of the state not to complement each other and not to engage with a view to achieving the common objective of liberating the people of South Africa and ensuring a better life for all.
While the primary function of the legislature is lawmaking, it also has two responsibilities in a democracy which are thought by some people to be contradictory. Between elections, the legislature has to hold the executive to account, while it must also sustain the executive to ensure that the governance does not collapse.
While separation of powers and checks and balances form foundations of our constitutional democracy, an antagonistic relationship between the legislature and the executive cannot be in the interests of our people, who expect both the legislature and the executive to provide much-needed services.
When the legislature focuses primarily on the mistakes of the executive, the emphasis of the executive will be more on avoiding mistakes and self- protection, instead of on adopting innovative and potentially efficient practices to advance transformation and improve service delivery.
The legislature-executive relationship in South Africa should not be understood as competing centres of power, but as inseparable partners in the business of government. While it governs in terms of the powers vested in it by the Constitution, we need to understand the executive as an appointed body responsible for governing the country, albeit on behalf of Parliament and the people.
Let us bear in mind that the basic foundation of the Constitution of the Republic is the accountability of the state to the people, "who are the real masters". And the accountability of the executive to the people at large is enforced through their elected representatives in the legislative organs of the state.
How do we give practical expression to this perspective of a complementary and mutually reinforcing relationship between the legislature and the executive?
Last week, in the Presidency Budget Vote debate, the hon Minister in the Presidency, Collins Chabane, spoke about the need consistently to assess the performance of our initiatives in all spheres of government in order to continually improve our service-delivery capacity while promoting accountability on the part of those charged with the responsibility to deliver. He went on to speak about the development of a set of 30 to 40 main outcome indicators based on policy outcomes upon which the mandate of government is based - indicators that will be used to develop simple and straightforward measures to assess whether outcomes are being achieved.
Minister Chabane made the very important point that this assessment is not only an internal measure within government, but a means to ensure transparency, accountability and public participation in the implementation of government's programme of action. It is clear that this executive is serious about transparency, accountability and public participation, and about the development of effective oversight mechanisms and inculcating a culture of performance.
Towards the end of its term, the third Parliament adopted a parliamentary oversight model. This model sets out a framework for Parliament's oversight work. It proposes mechanisms to strengthen and co-ordinate the various oversight tools at Parliament's disposal: budget hearings, questions, debates, members' statements, motions, sectoral parliaments, oversight visits, constituency work and many other tools.
How do we ensure a dynamic and mutually reinforcing relationship between this oversight model and the planning and evaluation functions in the executive? I would like to propose that the Leader of Government Business and the presiding officers in Parliament establish a mechanism to facilitate a dialogue between the executive and Parliament to ensure that the very powerful oversight tools that exist, both in Parliament and in the executive, can reinforce each other.
Moving towards concluding, I have participated in almost every debate on Parliament's budget since 2002 or 2003. Perhaps this might be an appropriate time to ask whether we are processing Parliament's budget in the most appropriate way. The one question which is being posed at a number of fora on a number of occasions is whether it is appropriate for Parliament's budget to be dealt with as a line item in the national Budget. Let us perhaps not go there today, but over and above this question, we need to ask whether the process of formulating Parliament's budget is sufficiently rigorous, inclusive and participatory.
Why do resources often not end up in areas where they are most needed, such as committees? Why are Members of Parliament always left feeling alienated from the process? Are Members of Parliament subjects or objects of the parliamentary budget? Wouldn't it, for example, be more appropriate for this debate to take place before Parliament's budget is submitted for inclusion in the national Budget?
Deputy Speaker, I am half way in concluding. I wish to thank all of those with whom I have served for many years in the Whippery and the ranks of the presiding officers for their friendship and support and for helping to instil in me an enduring commitment to a strong, effective and dynamic Parliament.
Lastly, in final conclusion, I wish to associate myself with all those who have thanked the presiding officers, the Secretary to Parliament and members of the parliamentary service and everyone who contributes to making it possible for us, as Members of Parliament, to serve those who have elected us to represent them. Working together we can do more. We support the Budget Vote of Parliament. I thank you. [Applause.]