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Tomorrow Parliament’s Joint Rules Committee will meet to discuss the Independent Panel Assessment of Parliament.

This is a welcome, but long overdue, discussion.

Despite the Panel’s report being adopted by the National Assembly in 2009, its significant findings have for the most part been ignored.

The Independent Panel Assessment of Parliament was established in December 2006 by the former Speaker of the National Assembly, Baleka Mbete, and Chairperson of the National Council of Provinces, Mninwa Mahlangu. Its purpose was to “inquire into, report and make recommendations regarding the extent to which Parliament is evolving to meet the expectations outlined in the Constitution”.

The Panel consisted of politically diverse members, including the current Speaker of the National Assembly, Max Sisulu.

The Panel found that Parliament is faced with a large number of challenges in fulfilling its constitutionally defined mandate. These challenges include:

A perceived lack of accountability by Members of Parliament
the drawbacks of the existing electoral system;
unrevised parliamentary rules and procedures; and
shortcomings with regards to its legislative mandate and poor information management.

The Democratic Alliance (DA) has over the last two years actively propagated the merits of the report and called for its findings and recommendations to be tabled before Parliament in the form of legislative proposals.