M Lekota: National Council of Provinces Intergovernmental Relations and
Co-Operative Governance summit

2 May 2007

Chairperson
Minister of Provincial and Local Government
Members of Parliament present
Mayors and councillors
Members of the Tripartite Alliance
Distinguished guests
Members of the media
Ladies and gentlemen
Comrades

Our Parliament consists of two Houses, the National Assembly and the
National Council of Provinces (NCOP).

When we abolished the Senate we had realised that it was firstly, based on
the British's House of Lords system and secondly, was not effective and
appropriate for what we needed to achieve in South Africa, namely a
co-operative form of government that gave the people greater access to
governance and delivery of services to themselves.

It is this orientation that informed the mind of the drafters of our basic
law, the National Constitution. Having encapsulated that spirit in the
Constitution, the challenge was to put in place structures that would enable
us, working with the masses of our people, to deliver that co-operative
governance.

Therefore, the establishment of the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) and
Provincial Legislatures are some of the transformational innovations that we
brought about in order to deepen democracy and to ensure broad-based popular
participation in the legislative and governance processes of our country.

With regard to the Senate the question we tried to answer was what to
substitute it (the Senate) with, that would enable us to achieve that
objective.

After studying various constitutions of other countries we finally settled
for the German Bundesraat model. Even that model had to be adapted to our
specific South African conditions. The product became the National Council of
Provinces. As we will probably conclude at the end of this summit, the NCOP is
a sphere of government that is yet to realise its full development.

Provincial Legislatures, therefore, play an important role in that they are
platforms for debating and congealing the mandates and positions their
delegates must present to the NCOP. If this was not so, delegates could simply
present what they believed was right and not what the people of that province
want.

The National Council of Provinces (NCOP) therefore presents a platform for
the entertainment and debates of the specific viewpoints of individual
provinces. But it is also in the NCOP that provinces' and the National Assembly
members' views meet as members of the National Assembly (Members of the
Executive) present and debate issues and explain their programmes.

In the drafting of the National Constitution it was realised quite early in
the process that in order to give effect to the broadening of democracy across
the land, there were certain pieces of legislation which could not be discussed
without the prior input of the provinces. Section 76 bills fall into that
category. The debate on these bills starts in the NCOP before being referred to
the National Assembly.

Legislation is passed by the NCOP if five of the nine provinces vote in
favour except if the bill is a Constitutional Amendment (Section 74 bills) in
which case it requires the approval of six provincial delegations before going
to the National Assembly for debate and approval. Provinces, through the NCOP,
therefore play an important and active part in the legislative process of the
country.

It is also through the NCOP that Local Government gains access and makes
inputs to the Central Government Legislative processes. This it does indirectly
through the respective MECs for Local Government or directly by occasional
participation in the forum of the NCOP.

In general the NCOP considers and amends, propose amendments to, or reject
legislation. It considers all national bills, and also has the power to
initiate legislation which relates only to the provinces or in areas in which
both the national and provincial governments have powers to make law (Schedule
4 areas).
It is imperative that in presenting their positions provinces must be able to
assert themselves and be able to be both robust and constructive in the
debates. In this manner they enrich the process as the product that comes from
the debates is a collective viewpoint of the provinces themselves.

The provinces are also an important link for Co-operative Governance. We
decided that our system of governance was not to be hierarchical but that they
should be one integrated unit with different parts or spheres, namely:
national, provincial, and local government.

Each of the spheres has to be loyal to the National Constitution and
implement it irrespective of who is in power. This was designed to achieve
sound intergovernmental relations and co-operative governance across the
board.

The NCOP has gone a long way from the time when it was regarded as the
stepchild of the National Assembly. The truth is that both the National
Assembly and the NCOP are two Houses of Parliament.

There was a time during my tenure as Chairperson when Cabinet members were
reluctant to avail themselves for the proceedings of the NCOP. I had to rule at
that time that Members of the National Executive must appear in person to
present their programmes and to answer questions.

Those times are passed and there is now full acceptance and positive
attitude towards the NCOP. The programme of "Taking Parliament to the people"
is designed to deepen democracy and to achieve popular participation. Through
this, the NCOP has been able to achieve one of the tenets of participatory
decision-making, namely; the practical and bottom-up involvement of ordinary
people in the decision-making of governance structures.

This involvement of those most adversely affected and in whose name
Parliament exists is a key to this process of deepening democracy and to the
attainment of popular participation.

It is important that people who live everywhere, including in small towns
and rural areas, know:

* that they can be directly heard
* that they can compel amendments to proposed legislation, etc.
* that the physical distance of Parliament from them is not a barrier
* that they will not only see their elected representatives on television but
they can physically see and hear them
* that they are able to put their cases to them directly.

That is deepening democracy, and popular participation in action and this is
what happens when "Parliament goes to the people"!

"Popular participation" is, in essence, the empowerment of the people to
effectively involve themselves in creating the structures and in designing
policies and programmes that serve the interests of all as well as to
effectively contribute to the development process and share equitably in its
benefits - be it political, social, economic, legal, technological, cultural,
and, or, environmental.

This means, therefore, that in pursuing its objectives the NCOP need to be
conscious of a diverse range of activities taking place around it. Through its
oversight processes it can contribute to the advancement of the above
activities in those areas in which they impact on its work. In this regard the
NCOP can facilitate the effective implementation of the following:

* Influencing both provincial and local governments to adopt development
strategies, approaches and programmes, whose content and parameters are in line
with the interest and aspirations of the people and which incorporate, rather
than alienate, African values and economic, social, cultural, political and
environmental realities.
* In fostering endogenous and people-cantered development strategies, and
creating an enabling environment to facilitate broad-based participation, in
the development process on a decentralised-basis.
* By facilitating the extension of more economic power to the people through
the equitable distribution of income, support for their productive capacity
through enhanced access to productive inputs, such as land, credit, technology,
etc.
* Promoting sharing and dissemination of information by other spheres of
government so that citizens are themselves empowered through and with that
information.
* Facilitate greater participation and consensus-building in the formulation
and implementation of economic and social policies at all levels, including the
identification and elimination of laws and bureaucratic procedures that pose
obstacles to people's participation.
* To galvanise and tap the people's energy and commitment, and to promote
political accountability by the State to the people. This will render
imperative that a partnership between government and the people should be
achieved.

The NCOP could consider to set up consultative machinery at various levels
such as the President's Council on which Premiers serve; various provincial
premiers' forums; worker organisations; women's organisations; and so on.

There is a need for an ongoing re-evaluation of the work of Parliament and
other institutions in order to stay on course all the time. This is the
opportune moment for the NCOP and all of us to:

* conduct an assessment of what weaknesses may exist
* what improvements can be effected
* how are the delegates appointed
* is the quality or calibre of representation up to standard
* are numbers of the delegates sufficient to carry out the task or is the
structure bloated
* are the provinces effective and efficient in discharging their
responsibility
* are the provinces too many and should the number be reduced (as the Minister
of Provincial and Local Government has alluded to
* should the role of provinces be re-considered, i.e. increase their powers or
curtail them?

Indeed, the NCOP has a responsibility to consider these questions so that it
can improve the structure where it may be weak or not fully achieving what it
was set up to achieve.

This Summit on Intergovernmental Relations and Co-operative Governance must,
therefore, seek to examine the role that the NCOP has played over the last ten
years and to consider the above and other questions and make suggestions and
recommendations that will ensure that the spirit and letter of the
establishment of the NCOP are achieved.

In short, the NCOP's experience over the last decade has been fruitful. We
need to take stock of what was achieved but concentrate on what can still be
achieved in the next ten five to ten years. As indicated, above, a lot can
still be achieved, focused, or refined.

I wish to take this opportunity to pay a tribute to all the Chairpersons of
the NCOP for holding the organisation together in the face of the challenges it
has faced and continues to face today.

I wish to pay a special tribute to the late Joyce Kgwadi who passed on still
holding her sword and at the helm of the NCOP. It is unfortunate that she is
not here with us to witness the 10th anniversary celebration of an institution
she helped to build and to steer through troubled waters.

I also wish to pay tribute to the current Chairperson and other organisers
of this summit.

To all the delegates to the summit I wish you a fruitful and enriching
discussion over the next two days.

Thank you!

Issued by: Ministry of Defence
2 May 2007