Enhancing Oversight and Accountability: Reforming Petition Mechanisms in Parliament

1. RESEARCH UNIT INPUT ON OVERSIGHT AND ACCOUNTABILITY MODEL: PETITIONS

2. Background • Currently, both committees dealing with petitions do not receive a significant number of petitions, which to an extent can be attributed to the manner in which the Rules of Parliament defines petitions, as well as mechanisms for receiving petitions. • In terms of the Rules Parliament, a petitioner(s) is responsible for finding an MP to support and present the petition on his or her behalf to Parliament. • The Rules do not make any provision for assistance to members of the public who live in rural or farm areas in terms of access to information and resources, such as transport. • The Rules, therefore, in its current form, tend to place limitations on members of the public and create impediments in terms of facilitating their participation in Parliament.

3. Current process and challenges • Part 6 of Chapter 10 of the Rules of the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) states that a petition must be in any of the official languages and must be correctly formatted. • The Rules of the NCOP do not indicate emphatically who must lodge the Petition to Parliament. • Part 3 of Chapter 14 of the Rules and Orders of the National Assembly (NA) sets out the procedure for the processing of petitions. In terms of the Rules, only an MP is technically allowed to lodge a petition in Parliament. • However, the Speaker of the NA has created a precedent whereby a Swazi Royal Family was allowed to lodge a petition directly to the Assembly.

4. Currentprocess and challenges (continued) • Rules of the NA which articulates that only an MP may lodge a petition, raises a critical question of petitions forwarded by members of the public directly to Presiding Officers, as well as petitions on service delivery handed over to Parliament after a public march, and signed by a number of persons. • Parliament Rules relating to the lodging of a petition contradicts 56 and sections 69 of the Constitution, which requires Parliament to accepts petitions, representations and submissions from any interested persons or institutions. • Some of the current Rules and Orders pertaining to petitions are dated, in that they are similar to the Rules that were implemented as far back as 1965 and therefore do not take into account the Constitutional provisions relating to petitions.

5. Oversight and Accountability Model: recommendation on petitions • Although Parliament currently attends to special petitions through the Committee on Private Members Bill and Special Petitions, general petitions, representations and submissions, as specified in section 56 and 69 of the Constitution, are not adequately addressed through institutional mechanism. • As such, it recommends that mechanisms be put in place to facilitate the processing, referral and guidance on attending to petitions, representations and submissions.

6. Implications for Parliament • Amending the Rules Post-1994, many processes in terms of governing the country changed and opportunities were created for members of the public to exercise their Constitutional right to participate in legislative processes. However, to realise this right, the Rules of Parliament need to be adapted to ensure that petitioner(s) can directly petition Parliament, given that they may find it challenging to secure MPs to represent them. • Classification and processing Parliament should development a mechanism for classifying general petitions, and decide on the procedure for processing each type of petition. For example, a single petition, association petition , collective petition and mass or group petition . This would also relate to how a mass petition from a public march should be processed.

7. Implications for Parliament • Accessibility and participation Parliament should investigate ways of facilitating the participation of members of the public who are economically disadvantaged, particularly those who live in rural and farm areas, as they are very far from Parliament and often lack the resources to participate. One potential way of addressing this is to encourage members of the public to lodge petitions when Parliament visits certain areas, such as through the NCOP initiative of Taking Parliament to the People. • Public awareness Parliament should increase public awareness of the petitions process in Parliament. Furthermore, it is recommended that the Parliament of South Africa compile annual reports reflecting the recommendations and decisions taken on each petition and publicised for the members of the public.

8. Implications for Parliament (continued) • Time-frame It is recommended that the Parliament look at duration in which the Committees should spend in dealing with petition, this may also include the on certain matter. This may assist the Committees to avoid necessary delays for the information from any department or Committee to respond to it and giving the information to finalise the process of the petition. • e-Petitions Parliament should develop guidelines on petitions, which may also speak on how to use the e-petitions. This may be including as part of the Road Shows in raising the awareness about petition in Parliament using both systems (Petition and e-Petition). Furthermore, it is recommended that Parliament identifies all the limitations and challenges around the utilisation of the e-Petitions and develop some strategies to ensure that such do not create negative impact towards its goal. This may assist Parliament in making easier for petitioners to raise their concerns.

9. Implications for Parliament (continued) • Implementation and support staff (1) Parliament should develop administrative systems for the processing of petitions, which should include its registration, cataloguing, summary of content, retention of materials of evidence, filing, and feedback to the persons who lodged the petition. This may require the appointment of full-time administrative support staff, which should ideally be based in the Public Affairs Unit, since it is the Unit primarily responsible for engaging with the public. The Rules of Parliament indicate that a petition must be in the prescribed format, which has important implications for members of the public not familiar with the format, or who, due to limited levels of literacy, may not be able to comply with this format. It is recommended that in such instances, full-time administrative support staff should be able to assist a petitioner when required to do so.

10. Implications for Parliament (continued) • Implementation and support staff (2) It is suggested that the Research Unit can play a role through the researchers assigned to the two committees to facilitate additional background information Members may require in order to process the petition. It is envisaged that general petitions relating to service delivery will vary in terms of the sectoral background information required, e.g. health, social development, justice, and the Committee Section, through the appointment of Content Analysts, may assist in this regard. Since the Rules of Parliament indicate that a petition must be lodged in one of the official languages, it clearly suggests a role of the Language Services to assists with translation when required.