The author is out of context and based the article on his general overview of the Province with total disregard of finer details. The perception created that the province is in “financial meltdown” is misleading and proves that little has been done to verify the facts.

The article is flawed with distorted facts to perpetuate fabricated statements. The suggested financial position of the province as alluded is baseless and his utterances deemed contradicting.

The article citing the Speaker of the Eastern Cape Provincial Legislature, Mr Fikile Xasa, as the Mampara of the Week is obnoxious. 

Firstly, it must be understood that just two days before the Speaker was portrayed as the “Mampara of the Week” by the Sunday Times, the Auditor General, Terrence Nombembe presented the Eastern Cape Provincial Legislature with a Clean Audit Award to congratulate the institution for achieving a Clean Audit Opinion describing such as a ‘momentous achievement’.

It is through the political leadership of Mr Fikile Xasa that the Legislature obtained such audit outcomes for the 2010/11 financial year. It is important to stress that the awarding of a clean audit opinion to the Legislature by the Auditor General was an important milestone in our conceited effort to ensure that all government Departments in the province achieve clean audit outcomes by 2014. How the Legislature has performed in the 2010/11 financial year audit is testimony of capable political leadership.

It is unfortunate that the Legislature as led by Mr Fikile Xasa is now being criticised and negative comments are made neglecting all evidence pointing to good governance. Perhaps it is proper to shed light on the mandate of the Legislature for more insight to those who may not be clear about its role.

The Eastern Cape Provincial Legislature has a constitutional mandate to maintain oversight of any organ of state. In its efforts to enhance its oversight function, the Legislature adopted a Sector Oversight Model as developed by the Legislative Sector.

The aim is towards an improved financial management in the public sector. The Legislature continues to deepen its oversight focusing on provincial departments with unsatisfactory performance.

The Legislature cannot manage the affairs of provincial departments; however it continually exerts pressure on them to account for good governance and accelerate performance.

Necessary efforts to strengthen oversight for improved performance of provincial departments cannot be overlooked. These attempts are merely a means to accelerate quality service delivery for the benefit of our communities. Viewing the MPL’s attendance of the Emotional Intelligence workshop as wasteful expenditure is indeed a cause for concern.

The oversight function played by the Members of the Provincial Legislature exposes them to a range of complex situations and interactions that require them to deal with diverse forms of behaviours and emotions. This kind of training in essence was to empower them to carry out their oversight function with a high level of effectiveness irrespective of the challenging situations they encounter.

Anyone who has a genuine interest to see an improvement in the audit outcomes of government departments in the Eastern Cape cannot see the workshop as “abuse of the hard-earned money of our constituencies”.