More than 200 delegates gathered at the provincial summit on public participation and petitions held in Fish River Sun applauded the Eastern Cape Provincial Legislature for hosting the event. The summit attracted key representatives from other Provincial Legislatures; namely, Hon. Mtholephi Mthimkhulu, the Deputy Speaker of the KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) Legislature, Honourable Lindiwe Lasindwa, the Chairperson for the Standing Committee on Petitions in the Gauteng Legislature and Honourable Jacob Khawe, who currently serves as the Chairperson of the Petitions Standing Committee in the Gauteng Legislature.
At the summit, the Chairperson for the Standing Committee on Public Participation and Petitions in the Eastern Cape Provincial Legislature, Honourable Imamile Pikinini, informed delegates that the summit marks the beginning of a new era. He said the Eastern Cape Provincial Legislature shall ensure that Public Participation is alive in the province. He stated that public participation is a platform for critical engagement between citizens and government.
Chief Thanduxolo Magadla, an Executive Member of the Eastern Cape House of Traditional Leaders shared some of the experiences of Traditional Leaders serving in Municipal Councils. He touched on the issue of out of pocket expenses for Traditional Leaders, a matter which was sharply raised by the Provincial Speakers’ Forum earlier. The Chief said, “It is worrying how people continue to destroy the services they already have to get services they still need”.
Honourable Jacob Khawe told delegates that public representatives were elected based on the commitments they made to the people. “Let us ask ourselves, to what extent are we representing the public? This summit is called to engage in discussions on whether public representatives are indeed representing the views of the people. If as Members of Provincial Legislature, Mayors, and Speakers we think we are defenders of the system we are very wrong, because we are elected to be represent in the system more than anything”, he said. Participants split into four different commissions to craft a solid way forward on the identified challenges.
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