ANC heavyweights including Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe will address the party’s three-day parliamentary caucus lekgotla, which starts tomorrow, to spell out the party’s plans for the year.
The lekgotla will be attended by ministers, chief whips from both houses and provincial legislatures to discuss implementing ANC policies.
The party’s treasurer-general, Mathews Phosa, will brief the gathering on the outcomes of the national executive committee’s lekgotla held earlier this month.
Caucus spokesman Moloto Mothapo said there were several “very important” issues to discuss, including job creation and the ANC’s programme for 2011. “We need to strengthen the synergy between the national and provincial caucuses so that decisions can filter through to the provinces.
“We need to strengthen oversight, monitoring and evaluation, especially in terms of reaching our target of creating 500 000 jobs a year (to meet the 2020 target).
“We don’t want to end the year when departments come and report and find they have not done their work - we need to ensure they are able to meet their commitments.”
Mothapo said provincial chief whips would attend a national chief whips’ forum today and stay on for the lekgotla. This body met “once in a while”: “Now we need to strengthen synergy”, Mothapo said.
Deputy Speaker Nomaindia Mfeketo, meanwhile, explained that Parliament would remain an activist Parliament, with an emphasis on mutual respect.
This follows a report in the Sunday Times last week that committee chairpersons had been briefed to be “gentle” with ministers, department officials and heads of state-owned enterprises during hearings.
Mfeketo said, however, the message during an induction of committee chairpersons had been “let’s be robust, let’s continue to build an activist Parliament” but distinguish between being robust and “confrontational, personal or threatening”.
She said reports had been received last year which indicated that at times MPs misinterpreted their oversight role. “Nobody said ministers and officials must not be called into question. What I emphasised was that there must be a mutual respect.
“We are an activist Parliament. It doesn’t mean disrespect ministers or ministers must disrespect committees. “What kind of Parliament (is it) if a minister comes and is humiliated or a minister comes and refuses to account?”
Wrapping up a meeting of the portfolio committee on higher education on Tuesday, chairman Ishmael Malale told a delegation from the Higher Education Department: “Today, we thought we should be parental in approach and not sensational. The committee was very parental today.”
Asked by Independent Newspapers whether being “parental” was in line with the reported instruction for chairpersons to be gentle, Malale denied knowledge of such an instruction. “Portfolio committees have a responsibility to ensure transparency and accountability by the departments, a duty we will practise without fear,” he said. iolnews