It's party time in parliament

Brendan Boyle: The rhetoric from the president and his ministers suggests that the government takes parliament very seriously. The evidence says otherwise, and never more clearly than in the budget debate season that is now drawing to a close.

With 34 departmental budgets to debate, pass and celebrate, parliament divides its 400-member national assembly into a several "extended public committees" which meet concurrently in chambers around the complex to debate the various ministerial programmes.

Up to five budgets can be handled on one day, making any claim to have subjected each to the necessary thought and consideration implausible.

Most departments feel a need to promote themselves to MPs and officials with stalls set up in the corridors like a legislative market- place, handing out trinkets and promotional material. The courtyards that usually serve as a refuge for smokers are covered with tents, banners go up and down as the various disciplines get their few hours of fame and refreshments are wheeled in and out.

Ministers anxious to justify their year's work line up to brief reporters in serial press conferences and complain the next day about how little space they got alongside all the other government programmes vying for attention. And in the evenings, it is party time.

After years of negative publicity about lavish events that sometimes cost more than R500000 to host, most ministers now prefer to exclude the media from the so-called budget parties. And with so much to write about, the lights stay on in many of the media offices on the fringe of the parliamentary complex until long after the last drinks have been served.

Is this really what parliament should be doing?

The Constitution says the first responsibility of parliament is to consider, amend, pass or reject legislation sent to it by government and to initiate legislation of its own. That is a job MPs do reasonably well when it does not involve something as politically loaded as the Protection of Information Bill.

The second power of parliament listed in Section 55 is "to ensure that all executive organs of state in the national sphere of government are accountable to it". That task should include thorough scrutiny of the budget each department draws up to utilise the allocation it receives in the finance minister's February budget speech.

For some departments, like public enterprises, the actual budget is small, but the power is immense.

Public Enterprises Minister Malusi Gigaba gets a relatively paltry R230-million to run the department, but his job is to guide and oversee the eight biggest companies owned by the state, including Eskom and Transnet. Others, like police with R58-billion and transport with R35-billion, should have a lot of explaining to do.

Who really remembers what Blade Nzimande said he would do with higher education and the universities? Did anyone pick up the important questions raised by the opposition in the justice debate? And did anyone have the time and energy to press the various departments involved on whether the Karoo should be fracked?

The habits of the segregated assembly that occupied the parliament buildings for a century deserve no status as honourable precedent, so we cannot speak of tradition in a parliament that is barely 17 years old. But nearly all the common opportunities for meaningful engagement at plenary level that are recognised in many other democratic parliaments have been ignored or removed from ours since its promising start in 1994.

Though Speakers have frequently abused their power to block tough questions to the president in the four question-and-answer sessions he submits to every year, these remain one of the few opportunities for unscripted parliamentary engagement with the head of our government.

ANC members more interested in Brownie points than interrogation soak up as much of the available time as they can with silly, sweetheart questions, but opposition MPs do still get to challenge the man on some important issues.

The regular questions to ministers offer the only other chance for useful engagement. Some sessions are robust, but ministers have developed a bad habit of claiming prior engagements when they should face questions, and often delegate fellow ministers to read the prepared answers and then claim ignorance during the few minutes allocated for unscripted follow-up questions.

Citizens who exercise their right to drop in and follow the processes of parliament will usually find something interesting to follow in the committees handling legislation, but what should be the main act, the plenary meetings of the National Assembly, have become a side show.