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By Gareth Cotterell

Digital Editor


MK and EFF MPs singled out for poor attendance of parliament’s committee meetings

Paul Berkowitz, who collaborated on the report, said the poor attendance by MPs is concerning.


According to a report, more than half of the MK party’s MPs attended less than 75% of their portfolio committee meetings this year.

The MK party is the biggest opposition party in parliament after the government of national unity (GNU) was formed.

The report by ‘The South Africa Brief’ shows that 61% of the MK party’s members attended less than 75% of the meetings.

The EFF was also singled out for the poor attendance of its MPs over the past six months. Half of its members failed to attend 75% of the meetings.

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Attendance by opposition MPs concerning

Parliament’s portfolio committee meetings are meant to provide oversight of the work of government and legislation.

Paul Berkowitz, the founder of Hlaziya Solutions, that collaborated on the report, said the poor attendance by MPs is concerning.

MK party and EFF ‘particularly poor’

“The MK party and the EFF have shown particularly poor performance in the first six months of the new administration, and this has a direct effect on the ability of opposition parties to hold the government of national unity (GNU) accountable,” he wrote.

The report’s data showed that only eight of the MK party’s 44 MPs attended more than 90% of the meetings, while 13 of the EFF’s 42 members also managed to reach this standard.

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Berkowitz said the poor attendance of MPs in South Africa would not be accepted in the private sector.

“To date, MPs are not punished or censured for a poor attendance record, although you would expect some kind of disciplinary action if you missed one out of four scheduled work meetings in the private sector.”

“Attendance for ANC and DA MPs is generally good, although there are too many MPs who have failed to show up to work more than 75% of the time. Attendance is much worse for MK, EFF, and most of the smaller parties for whom the data is available,” he added.

Worst performing MPs

The report’s data showed that 23 MPs were at less than half of the 10 scheduled meetings they were expected to attend.

The EFF was the worst in this regard with six MPS, while five came from the IFP and MK party, two from the FF+, and one each from ATM, NCC, DA, Bosa, and the ANC.

A list of the hardest working MPs was compiled from those expected to attend at least 30 meetings.

Among this list, eight are from the ANC, two from the DA, and one each from Al Jama-ah and the MK party.

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