Zondo affirms opposition call for presidential oversight committee

In the final state capture report, chief justice Raymond Zondo recommends the establishment of a parliamentary committee to oversee the president and presidency.

Zondo said recent history has shown the president’s conduct is not always subject to adequate oversight by parliament’s portfolio committees.

The establishment of such a committee will be music to opposition ears, as parties have called for this for more than 20 years.

Despite parliament having a constitutional obligation to hold the executive to account — and with the president being head of the national executive — the legislature has no portfolio committee to oversee the president.

The only mechanism for holding the president accountable is MPs questioning him for written or oral reply and, in terms of national assembly rules, he appears before the assembly to answer such questions once every three months.

“However, in the commission’s view, it would probably be a good idea for parliament to establish a committee to exercise oversight over acts or omissions by the president (and the presidency) which are not in any event subject to adequate oversight by other portfolio committees,” said Zondo.

“It is not correct that everything for which the president is responsible is delegated to a minister or department outside of the presidency.

“A process to enable the president’s and presidency’s conduct to be subjected to more probing scrutiny than is feasible in a plenary session of the national assembly would therefore appear to be beneficial,” said Zondo.

“It is therefore recommended that parliament should consider whether it is appropriate for it to establish a committee whose function is, or includes, oversight over acts or omissions by the president and the presidency, which are not overseen by existing portfolio committees.

“If it supports this in principle, it will need to determine the details as to how this is to be done. It may well be that it needs to operate in the same manner as the existing portfolio committees,” he said.

The commission heard from several witnesses on whether there would be merit in parliament establishing such a committee.

“It became apparent that this is an issue that has been and continued to be debated.

“There is a view held by some that there is little need for such a committee, as all executive functions are delegated by the president to a department led by a minister, which is overseen by a portfolio committee,” said Zondo.

The DA and IFP specifically have been calling for such a committee since the third parliament, when then DA leader Tony Leon called for it to hold then president Thabo Mbeki’s office to account.

Only in the fifth parliament was a compromise reached. This saw the department of monitoring and evaluation in the presidency accounting to the portfolio committee on public service and administration.

At the beginning of the sixth parliament, in June 2019, the IFP reiterated the call.

The party’s chief whip, Narend Singh, cited the Constitutional Court ruling on the Nkandla matter, which found the national assembly failed in its constitutional duty to conduct oversight on the president.

He also reminded MPs that in provincial legislatures there are portfolio committees that oversee premiers’ offices‚ something that was missing nationally.

“Here we don’t have the oversight in terms of spending of the presidency and I place this matter on the table because it’s a constitutional imperative that we oversee all votes within government‚” Singh said.

The call was roundly supported by other MPs, with the ACDP’s Steve Swart describing the absence of such a committee as “a deficiency”.

However, the ANC kicked for touch, saying discussions on the matter would continue between political parties, but outside parliamentary structures.