State Capture: Parliament’s response plan to Zondo Commission to be discussed

Parliament’s Rules Committee is scheduled to meet later this month to discuss a way forward relating to the Commission of Inquiry into Allegations of State Capture’s recommendations.

This is according to National Assembly Speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, who alerted members of the Programming Committee during a meeting on Thursday that the Rules Committee would reconvene on 23 November.

The Rules Committee has been tasked to come up with an implementation plan in response to the State Capture Commission’s findings, which made several recommendations as to how Parliament should improve to prevent another state capture era.

Response plan

The committee met last Friday after President Cyril Ramaphosa – on 22 October – tabled his implementation plan on the commission’s recommendations, however, no decisions were made since the virtual meeting wasn’t quorate.

Only MPs from the Democratic Alliance (DA), Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) and African National Congress (ANC) showed up to the meeting, much to the dismay of the Speaker.

Despite this, Secretary to the National Assembly Masibulele Xaso made a presentation to the committee about the process of Parliament’s response plan.

According to Xaso, the plan proposes that the commission’s recommendations will be referred to the National Assembly’s relevant portfolio committees and the National Council of Provinces’ (NCOP) relevant standing committees.

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Xaso also revealed that several of the recommendations about Parliament will be directed to the Joint Rules Committee or to both Houses’ rules committees.

“For those recommendations that will be referred to committees of Parliament, we [are] recommending that the House chairpersons of committees in the National Assembly and NCOP should monitor the implementation of those recommendations and they should receive quarterly reports,” he told the committee.

In addition, the proposed constitutional amendments by Chief Justice Raymond Zondo, who chaired the State Capture Commission, will be referred to the Joint Constitutional Review Committee.

The Joint Ethics Committee, in May this year, was directed to investigate possible contraventions of the parliamentary code of conduct during the state capture era.

This applies to current members who were serving in Parliament when any alleged transgressions took place.

Watch the meeting below:

Zondo’s findings

In the final state capture report, released in June, Zondo stated Parliament “failed to use the oversight and accountability measures at its disposal”.

The Chief Justice recommended, among other things, that Parliament consider the establishment of a committee overseeing the president and the Presidency.

He also recommended the appointment of chairpersons of committees to include more members of opposition parties and improved reporting of the Joint Standing Committee on Intelligence at the end of term of each Parliament.

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