Address by the Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly, Lechesa Tsenoli, at the 16th Conference of the Association of Public Accounts Committees (APAC), Bloemfontein
The timing of your conference is spot on in the middle of spring thus boding well that its resolutions will have an uplifting effect on our spirits following the now receding bitter winter.
It is also timely as it occurs almost in the middle of the fifth term and is appropriate to reflect on progress to date and the necessary course correction required if we are to meet our commitment to people made during the 2014 national elections - it must go without saying too that for municipalities we wish you focus on can only be a timeous induction to what promises to be a robust five years.
As public representatives we have come under severe attack concerning the degree to which we hold the executive to account - our institutional landscape has come under a severe test and thankfully it has come out resilient - we have a duty to strengthen it further.
I am talking about the dynamic interaction within the executive, the legislature, institutions that support democracy and the fourth sector - the media - without the constitutional and legal framework and practice to date we would have been in greater trouble.
Our biggest challenge remains poverty, unemployment and the high inequality in our country. It is for this reason your body the association of public accounts committees is so crucial to ensure as Madiba said on second of March 1999 that public funds for public interests! Our integrity and that of the institutions we represent fends on us acting consistently, swiftly whenever maladministration and corruption rears their ugly head.
You are, or ought to be, at the cutting edge of the campaign to roll back especially corporate capture of the state not for the public interests but for individual, friends and family interests. The relations with business big and small must be to join the stated objective to reverse and roll back the ravages of poverty, unemployment and inequality.
Nurses, when they graduate and or die, the Nightingale Nurses pledge is read out to map out conduct consistent with their profession and later to remind us what they sought to achieve when they lived. Our experiences and reports of both public and private - especially public health facilities are a mixed bag!
Many of you will relate to this saying: Tell no lies, mask no difficulties and claim no easy victories. Amicar Cabral of Guinea Bisau was talking ahead of the revolutionary takeover of that country following his experiences in the struggle.
The political challenge that face public representatives are no different today especially those who serve in and officials who report to committees of the legislature from time to time.
There's no doubt that as a guiding mantra Cabral's words are powerful and instructive today as they were when he said them in during struggles against Portuguese colonialism.
We owe it to Our People, and we say so because we come from them, it is they who elected us, and we are proud that for generations they have been loyal to struggles to emancipate humanity.
We must find strategies to expand the lifespan of good performing members of the standing committees of public accounts. It is often short and full of drama. Our capacity building initiatives must be multi-dimensional focusing on the individual, the team they are part off, the institution they belong to as well as in the organizations we belong to. A creative relationship with nongovernmental organizations also goes a long way in the culture of accountability we cultivate.
You are partly among other committees and members responsible for feeding into and implementing the sector model of oversight and accountability. Come uniting intelligently with programming committees to feature debates, speaking to persuading chief whips to make statement to be replied to in the house and asking both sweetheart and robust questions for oral or written replies must be your task.
We work with universities for capacity building let's cording our work better so we define our needs better. Universities South Africa led by the wits vice chancellor wants us to improve our relations - help us do that.
Our participation in global forums is both useful to learn from others but also to draw down resources for capacity building always being in charge of the agenda and content of such capacity building. Technology also makes possible learning fast, online, with anyone or institution anywhere, saving enormous transport accommodation as well as S & T and related travel issues.
At the heart of our capacity building must be gender consideration - sensitisation of both (all) sexes socialization including our collective vision to create a non-racial, non-sexist, democratic and prosperous society. Every step, in every moment must be checked for its alignment with that vision!
