In 1994 the people of South Africa, through their votes, chose freedom over tyranny. They chose a multi-party democracy over illegitimate minority rule. They chose a just Constitutional order over unjust security state disorder. And importantly they chose executive accountability over executive sovereignty.

The framers of the Constitution gave this mandate expression by entrenching this Parliament as the primary arena of executive accountability. And so, the question we must ask today on behalf of the people who have sent us here to represent them is simply this: Are we living up to their expectations?

In 1994 the people of South Africa chose an accountable police service over a police force.

Far too many of our citizens, and many members in this chamber still remember with revulsion how the South African Police Service (SAPS) were used as an instrument by the illegitimate apartheid regime to suppress political opponents, stifle ideas, and stamp out freedom.

It is simply inconceivable then that the opposition was required to go to court to stop the Presiding Officers of this House from setting the police on them, in direct violation of the powers and privileges of Members of Parliament (MP) and the separation of powers.

One of the most fundamental part of our jobs as MP is to hold the President and other members of the Executive to account. It would be a sad day for our democracy if the Presiding Officers were simply allowed to have members arrested and removed from the precinct of Parliament by SAPS for fulfilling our constitutional responsibility. However much the Executive may not like the message or how it is delivered -The Speaker opposed that case and the Speaker lost.

In 1994 the people of South Africa chose a Constitution that guaranteed every citizen the right to freedom of speech.

They did this precisely to ensure that never again would the ability to share ideas or views be inhibited by fear or state control. But perhaps more importantly they entrenched this right in our Parliament precisely to ensure that the representatives of the people sent to this House would never again be afraid to say what needed to be said for fear of reprisal.

The ANC fought, suffered and sacrificed during the struggle for freedom and democracy. And so we must ask why ANC members remain silent and are now complicit in the trampling of freedom of speech in this very House?

Every time you do so you weaken your own rights and betray the mandate of the people who sent you here to speak up for them. Can you imagine a future, and judging by things it won’t be long, when you will sit on the opposition benches? Would you accept the type of suppression of your rights as are being inflicted now? I doubt it.

Innocuous words like “rubbish” and “faction” are ruled unparliamentary, and it is getting worse by the day. Just last week in this House the Leader of the Opposition was prevented from referring to Mr. Zuma as “accused number one”, despite the fact that the Gauteng High Court had ruled that “The decision of first respondent in 2009 to discontinue prosecution is reviewed and set aside.” and “Mr. Zuma should face the Charges as outlined in the indictment”. The Court was of course referring to the 783 charges of fraud, corruption and racketeering facing the President.

Less than 48 hours later the Mail and Guardian published, on its front page, a picture of Mr. Zuma with the words “accused number one” emblazoned on it. There is something profoundly wrong when a national newspaper has the freedom to print those words on its front page, yet the Presiding Officers of this House prevent an elected MP from saying the very same words, in a chamber where the freedom of speech of members is protected by the Constitution, by the law and by our rules.

Yet all the while this House pretends that court judgments, constitutional provisions and the law simply don’t matter.

Time and time again the courts have had to step in and remind the Presiding Officers of their responsibilities to protect the freedom of speech in this House: Lekota Vs Speaker, De Lille Vs Speaker, and as recently as last year, the Lee Bozalek judgement. The list goes on. Yet time and time again the Presiding Officers default to muzzling members, stifling debate.

Why is the ANC silent when this happens? What is it that you are all so afraid of hearing? The truth?

Their denialism has subdued this House into a dream state, completely divorced from reality. We need to wake up to the frustrations that ordinary South Africans are feeling, we need to wake up to the fundamental disconnect that exists between the real world and real experience of our citizens and the fantasy being nurtured in this House.

This House cannot continue to pretend that our economy is not in a deep crisis, just this week we lost our slot as the largest economy on the continent to third place behind Nigeria and Egypt.

This House cannot continue to pretend, when our neighbouring countries growth rates are double ours, that our tanking economy is due only to “global headwinds”.

This House cannot continue to pretend that it is not the poor policy choices and schizophrenic uncertainty of the Zuma administration that is strangling growth and killing jobs.

This House cannot pretend that the millions South Africans who have lost their jobs under Mr. Zuma don’t exist.

This House also cannot continue to pretend that this week’s quarterly labour statistics which show a massive rise in unemployment to 8.9 million people.

These are real people sitting at home, many of them may even be watching this debate now. They are worried about their future, they are worried about their families. They worry which relative is going to lose their job next, or how they are going to put food on the table for their children at the day’s end.

Life has gotten too hard for too many of our people. 8.9 Million of them worry every single day if they will ever again have the dignity of work

They have lost faith in a government that has turned its back on them and they are fast losing hope that this House will ever stand up for them.

It’s of little wonder then that so many of our citizens are resorting to protest and the burning of schools to get attention, it’s clear that the government benches of this House are not listening to them or to their frustrations.

The logo of Parliament above me proudly proclaims “We the People” when in current reality it should be scratched out to read “We the Executive”.

This institution long ago ceased to be a people’s parliament. It’s become a playground for the Executive where they are mollycoddled and shielded from probing oversight by a Speaker who cannot distinguish between her role as custodian of the institution and her chairmanship of the ANC.

It has gotten so bad that some Mnisters, notably Rob Davies and Angie Motshekga, regularly don’t bother to turn up for their oral question sessions in the House. They are able to duck accountability and oversight from Members of the House with impunity.

But perhaps the worst example is the fact that Mr. Zuma was able to stand unchallenged at this very podium last week and lecture this House and its members with impunity on how they should behave, with absolutely no shame or remorse for his own disgraceful conduct – And not a word from any of you, except the Speaker’s acquiescence.

The Democratic Alliance believes passionately that it is our duty to get this House truly working for the people, so that we can get the people back to work.

The Constitutional Court judgement on Nkandla is a watershed moment for our country and our constitution. The judgement has left Parliament’s reputation in tatters.

It exposes for all to see how parliament failed miserably in its most basic and fundamental duties to hold the executive to account and to ensure that the Constitution is upheld.

This is a damning indictment on this institution and a clarion call for the fundamental reform that is now urgently required.

The Fifth Parliament stands confronted with this stark choice; building a new bridge of accountability and obligation out of this mess or simply continuing to wallow in the backwaters of inaction and impotence.

But this is not the first time that we have been here:

In 1999 Parliament was facing a similar crisis of confidence and was grappling with the concepts of proper Executive accountability and oversight. It commissioned a study by a group of academics headed by constitutional expert Professor Hugh Corder.

The report made several conclusions and proposals on how we could effectively exercise oversight over the Executive and how Parliament should truly give expression and support to our obligations to support Chapter Nine institutions, like the Public Protector. The recommendations were never implemented.

Then in 2001 Parliament’s committee into Chapter Nine institutions, headed by the late Dr. Kader Asmal again studied the roles of Chapter Nine institutions and how we can integrate their work with ours – The subsequent report was produced in 2007 but the recommendations were never implemented.

Professor Corder was absolutely correct when in his report he set out that “If accountability is to be made effective it is necessary to set out objectives or standards against which performance can be assessed and measured. If this is not done then Parliaments oversight role is unclear because there are no identifiable criteria by which to judge the reporting bodies. Consequently the exercise of oversight becomes difficult and often meaningless”

The work has all been done, it’s not rocket science, we don’t have to reinvent the wheel; it will just take the courage to actually implement the bold reforms that we require.

Madam Speaker, it is an enormous honour to be bestowed with the Speakership of this House. This is evidenced by the stature of the people who have previously presided from this chair. People like Frene Ginwala and Max Sisulu, giants of the struggle and trailblazers of our new democracy.

And I know that it cannot be an easy job to preside over a robust Parliament, it’s fraught with challenges and difficult situations.

But the truth is, Madam Speaker, you are falling far short of the high standards that they have set. Never before has this House been presided over with such partisan rancour. Never before has such blatant executive-mindedness obstructed elected peoples representatives from doing their jobs.

The very first opportunity after the Constitutional Court judgement to begin repair to the substantial damage to the National Assembly’s credibility was the first sitting after the judgement. A clear distinction would have been helpful.

Instead we were treated to the spectacle of a Speaker who refused, in the face of a united opposition, to see the glaringly obvious conflict of interest presented by her presiding over the debate of impeachment.

Instead of placing the dignity and reputation of the institution of Parliament first, the Speaker chose to cling unseemingly to chair at all costs, this despite being the first respondent in the very matter under discussion and a party to the unlawful actions of the legislature

All despite you opposing the same matter in such a pitiful manner, where even the advocate you sent to defend the indefensible couldn’t muster a half decent argument. Your submission embarrassed you and embarrassed this institution and frankly deserved the excoriating rebuke of the judgement.

Surely you want to be remembered as the Speaker who defended this Parliament and not the one who destroyed it?

Every time you choose the President over this Parliament. Every time you fail to protect our rights as members to freedom of speech. Every time you choose to defend the indefensible in court. Every time you choose to shield a Minister from tough questions. Every time you choose might over right, you strike a hammer blow against the very foundations that this House is built upon and you pervert the will of the people who sent us here to represent them.

But it doesn’t have to be like this. We can fix this institution and make it strong again, we can restore it as the proud centrepiece of democratic accountability.

Two decades of a sustained initiative by the ANC to pull the teeth of this important executive watchdog has taken its toll for sure. The Nkandla matter is merely symptomatic of a deeper structural problem. The ANC have actively sought to weaken this House and deliberately suffocate its ability to hold the President and his Ministers accountable

This is not the Parliament that the framers of the Constitution envisaged. They dreamt of a robust and energetic multi-party chamber with a healthy tension between the executive and the legislature. They laid out a legislature where meaningful oversight would be done and expression given to the will of the people. They planned a Parliament that would form a bastion of defense of the Constitution and the principles enshrined therein.

Instead they have been bequeathed a dummy chamber that slavishly does the bidding of the President and his Executive, even if this means violating the very constitution that birthed it.

Let’s start by being honest about these shortcomings and failures identified in all the recent court judgments, lets marry these together with the myriad of reports like the Corder report, the Asmal report and the endless hours of work already done. Let us understand what real accountability and real oversight are.

We need to hold this House accountable and it should have a dedicated committee to exercise oversight of it that meets regularly. This will ensure proper oversight of it both administratively and politically.

We need to introduce a Standing Committee on Constitutional institutions that will oversee, process and action the findings and reports of the Chapter Nine institutions in a meaningful way, and we must debate these reports in this House. (When last did we debate the findings of a single Chapter Nine institution in this House?)

We must use the opportunity presented by the review of the rules to look at ways to ensure that our oversight role is strengthened and enhanced. We must reintroduce questions without notice to ensure ministers are on top of their portfolios.

We must pass an Executive Accountability Act that will serve as an accountability mechanism with real consequences for Presidents and Ministers who feel that they can simply ignore this House and their constitutional obligations.

And we must at all times, in everything we say and do in this House respect and uphold the Constitution and the bill of rights which form the foundation of our democracy.

And so the responsibility falls on all of us as Members, across party lines, to restore the powers and functions of the legislature to ensure that we discharge our duty to the people of this country and our constitutional obligations entrusted to us in our oath of office.

We dare not fail to rise to the challenge laid down by this judgement. Failing to fundamentally reform this institution will further betray our mandate and earn the scorn of generations to come.

We dare not fail the people who placed their trust in us by electing us to represent them in this House. They are looking to us for direction now in this time of great uncertainty and hardship.

We owe it to them to do what we must to get this House working for them, so that we can get them working again.