ANC chief whip Mathole Motshekga vowed to speed up implementation of the policy.

"Caucus has committed to speeding up the multi-party deliberations on the draft policy, to ensure that all outstanding technical issues are resolved, so that the policy can come into force," Motshekga said.

"The policy will curb the challenge of absenteeism and poor attendance by MPs across all political parties," he added.

The statement comes after Speaker Max Sisulu recently told a meeting of Parliament's joint standing rules committee it was embarrassing that the legislature did not have a policy to regulate the amount of leave taken by lawmakers, and to penalise those who missed sittings.

The draft policy has been in the pipeline for roughly a decade. In its current form it proposes to deduct R500 a day from the salaries of MPs who repeatedly miss sessions without valid reasons, and to expel those who are absent for 30 consecutive days or longer.