NCOP: Statement by Khutala Mabece, of the National Council of Provinces Office of the Chairperson, on the NCOP Chief Whip’s rejection of COPE’s "misguided" statement (03/09/2009)

URL: http://www.engineeringnews.co.za

Policy, Law, Economics and Politics - Deepening Democracy through Access to Information

This privately-owned website is operated and maintained by Creamer Media

Polity

Published: 03 Sep 2009

NCOP: Statement by Khutala Mabece, of the National Council of Provinces Office of the Chairperson, on the NCOP Chief Whip’s rejection of COPE’s "misguided" statement (03/09/2009)

The Chief Whip of the National Council of Provinces (NCOP), the Honourable Nosipho Dorothy Ntwanambi (MP) rejects with utter contempt the statement by the Congress of the People (Cope) regarding "a lack of competent management of the NCOP".

The statement by Cope not only contains distorted conflations and utter disinformation deliberately intended to undermine the leadership of the NCOP, but shows a disconcerting lack of comprehension of the NCOP and its processes.

It is a widely reported fact that on return from the special session of the Assembly of the African Union, Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe's plane was diverted to Gbadolite in the Democratic Republic of Congo after it was unable to land for its scheduled fuelling in Bangui in the Central African Republic.

As a result, the Deputy President could not arrive on time in South Africa to answer questions in the NCOP. After consulting the various provinces and parties serving in the NCOP Programming Committee, it was felt that the plenary should be rescheduled to a later date.

It is worth mentioning that the Honourable Dennis Bloem who is Cope's only representative in the NCOP Programming Committee arrived few minutes before the meeting was adjourned - a practice that he has consistently maintained since the beginning of the fourth democratic Parliament.

Cope's claims that "there will be no plenary until next week" and that "the knock-on effect would be portfolio committee meetings that do not quorate, wasting the money of taxpayers and affecting service delivery on the ground" clearly expose their lack of understanding of processes of the NCOP and their inability as a party to put in place measures to ensure the accountability of their Members in attending Parliamentary committee meetings.

The week of 7 - 11 September 2009 has been designated as a Provincial Week where all Members of the NCOP, including members of Cope are supposed to return to their respective provinces to gather first-hand information about challenges that the provinces are facing in delivering quality services to the communities.

The decision to have the Provincial Week was taken in June this year and it is a long established practice that is intended to afford NCOP Members an opportunity to interact with provinces on issues of service delivery and get "new mandates" about issues that should be on the national political agenda.

Several forums of the NCOP, including the whippery where Honourable Bloem serves, have consistently discussed the Provincial Week and the need to ensure that the NCOP uses it to engage provinces and municipalities to establish their plans to respond to concerns that communities raise over the delivery of services and addressing the current backlog.