ANC caucuses must put in place legislative agenda to improve performance of the ANC led government

n By Mlibo Qoboshiyane

NOW that key policy speeches have been tabled by the President, Premiers of provinces, budget speech by the Finance minister, all ANC MPs, MPLs and Councillors have to use our legislative authority to put in place a legislative agenda to improve the performance of the ANC led government.

We know the challenges that torment our country, her people in their homes, those that needle the hearts of every patriot committed to building a better South Africa.

In the sea of these challenges, Statistics South Africa’s Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS) shows that “employment increased by 169 000 in the fourth quarter of 2022 following an increase of 204 000 in the third quarter of 2022. Official unemployment rate decreased by 0.2 of a percentage point to 32.7% in Q4: 2022 compared to Q3: 2022.”

Furthermore, the QLFS shows that graduate unemployment has jumped from 4,4% in 2012 to 10,6% in 2022, doubling over the last 10 years, in Q4:2022, 80,6% of women were in long-term unemployment compared to their male counterparts with 76,1%, unemployment rate among Black/ Africans remains higher than the national average and other population groups. These demand that we do more in our legislative work to speedily address these challenges.

While these job numbers show that the work we are doing as the ANC is bearing fruits, we have to ensure the economy creates more jobs for those still unemployed, skill those who lack skills to be employed or to create jobs, expand business finance, especially grants to more entrepreneurs, including the youth.

Our policies must make sure that there are no barriers to access grant and loan finance for entrepreneurs. We must align all funding instruments to policy priorities in our manifesto commitments.

Proper use and interpretation of data for purposes of fast racking development is one of the things we must do to hasten development, be capable of responding to changing circumstances.

To deal with such circumstances, as law makers we must use our legislative responsibility to ensure that proper plans pronounced by the president, premiers, and allocated funds for implementation by the finance minister are aligned with processes that will help us deliver our manifesto commitments to the people of our country.

We must work together to put an end to crime, violence, gender based violence, murder in our communities and businesses. There will never be a better life in a society tormented by crime, violence, killing of friends, loved ones, business owners, our chil- dren. We will never have a better society when children and women are raped, attacked and killed.

Section 43 of our constitution provides that the legislative authority of the Republic at the national sphere is vested in Parliament, in provincial legislatures for the provincial sphere and municipal councils for the local government sphere.

Provincial legislatures draw their responsibilities from section 114 of the constitution which provides that “a provincial legislature must provide for mechanisms: to ensure that all provincial executive organs of state in the province are accountable to it and to maintain oversight of the exercise of provincial executive authority in the province, including the implementation of legislation and any provincial organ of state.”

Working with our comrades deployed to responsibilities of MECs of departments, we will continue exercising oversight to programmes of government through portfolio committees that are chaired by our comrades.

All the challenges we face demand that we improve how we conduct oversight, inject more pace in our processes, spend more time with our communities in all our wards resolving their concerns, and connect them to government departments, entities and municipalities for sustainable solutions.

At our 55th national conference we took clear policy resolutions to implement as priority programmes to improve efficiency and performance of the ANC led govern- ment.

In a nutshell, the 55th national conference tasked all ANC deployees to improve manifesto delivery performance in delivering what we committed to the people of our country.

At the centre of the agenda for the 6th term is to make the Legislative Sector accessible to the people in line with the unambiguous freedom charter commitment that the people shall govern. Having realised the lack of interest in the work of legislatures, we are reconnecting the legislature with the people.

We have realised that in the Eastern Cape Province some people don’t understand the role, mandate of the Legislature and that it is set up to assist or intervene on their behalf with the government.

We are cognisant of the fact that a lot is expected from the Legislature in terms of conducting oversight that will ensure the accountability of the Provincial government to the people of the province; Pass Laws that will ensure that citizens’ rights are upheld to ensure meaningful public partici- pation.

Our immediate focus is to be the first people our constituents contact to report their problems, be the first people to facilitate speedy and proper solutions to all their problems, work with the executive, civil society and other community structures to speed up delivery, development and transformation of our society.

At the heart of our legislative authority is the responsibility to ensure that the plans put out by our comrades from the president, premiers, and minister of finance are fully implemented for the benefit of the people of our country so that jobs are created, crime is eradicated and for our people to live in safer communities.

The constitution empowers us to put in place a legislative agenda that makes it possible for our people to have a better life and a brighter future n

Mlibo Qoboshiyane is a member of the ANC, MPL in the Eastern Cape Legislature and the Deputy Speaker.