ActionSA parliamentary leader Athol Trollip said his party will negotiate with other parties on their bill that seeks to abolish the positions of deputy ministers.
Image: Henk Kruger / Independent Newspapers
ActionSA will canvass parties represented in Parliament to support their Private Member's Bill that seeks to amend the Constitution in order to abolish deputy minister positions, parliamentary leader Athol Trollip said on Thursday.
“We are to negotiate with them clause by clause and try to put together a better bill before Parliament,” Trollip said.
He made the statement after the first reading debate of his Twenty-third Constitutional Amendment Bill in the National Assembly.
The bill wants to abolish the deputy minister positions, a provision for a vote of no confidence in ministers, and vetting of ministers before assuming office on appointment by the Cabinet.
The bill is considered amid the bloated Cabinet, consisting of 33 ministers and 43 deputy ministers.
Trollip said the bill, once enacted, will constitute the most consequential reform of the executive since the dawn of democracy.
“It is a decisive intervention to restore efficiency, accountability, and credibility to the highest offices of government severely degraded by self-serving government under the leadership of the ANC.”
He decried the size of the current 76-member executive, saying it led to a bigger government that has not been better.
“The explosion in the number of deputy ministers is completely excessive and indefensible. The office-bearers are not constitutionally empowered to act in the absence of their ministers.”
He described the deputy ministers as instruments of patronage, serving merely as seat warmers.
Trollip also said the president has unchecked discretion to appoint and remove ministers.
Citing instances when President Cyril Ramaphosa had not acted or removed underperforming ministers, Trollip argued that Parliament should have the power to approve or reject ministerial appointments.
“This is about ensuring those entrusted with immense power are subjected to scrutiny before they assume office. We cannot tolerate retreading of appointments of ministers who disgrace themselves and let South Africa down and to re-enter Cabinet as if the past sins are forgiven.”
Trollip added that Parliament should be empowered to pass a vote of no confidence in individual ministers.
Trollip further said the president should be allowed to appoint four people who were not MPS to the Cabinet, an increase from the provision of two.
MK Party MP Mzwanale Manyi said the problem was not the existence of the deputy ministers, but their quality, capacity, discipline, and accountability.
“Smaller cabinets fail if an incompetent leader is appointed,” Manyi said.
He backed the proposed motion of no-confidence against ministers.
“No minister should be untouchable because the president refuses to act against them.”
However, Manyi said deputy ministers must be retained, be allowed to attend Cabinet meetings and qualify to act in place of their ministers and ensure continuity.
EFF MP Mathibe Mohlala said the Red Berets have long viewed deputy ministers as serving at the mercy of the ministers.
She said this reality has been laid bare with the suspension of Police Minister Senzo Mchunu, as his deputies can't stand in for him, instead Professor Firoz Cachalia was roped in.
“We fully support this bill as far as it supports the bill, as it seeks to abolish deputy ministers,” Mohlala.
However, she said the proposal that provides for ministers to be vetted by Parliament eroded the power of the president to appoint.
The party did not back the motion of no confidence against ministers, saying it shielded the president from accountability.
While the Patriotic Alliance and the UDM opposed the proposed bill, BOSA and the Freedom Front Plus backed it.
BOSA MP and deputy leader Nobuntu Hlazo-Webster said: “We must consider clause by clause which aspects in the bill are vital and can pass the constitutional muster.”
DA MP Glynns Breytenbach said the bill was presented as a bold intervention to reduce the size of the executive and strengthen parliamentary accountability.
“These are principles we support. The mechanisms proposed are flawed and constitutionally concerning,” Breytenbach said.
She also said the approval of the appointment of ministers by Parliament will alter the power of the president and will politicise appointments, while the motion of no confidence against ministers would destabilise the administration.
ANC MP Oscar Mathafa said the bill blurs the separation of powers and overreaches the prerogative of the president to appoint his Cabinet.
Mathafa also said the proposal to abolish deputy ministers ignored the practical reality of governance, and stated that the deputies played a role in functional and effective departments.
“This is a solution in search of problems,” he said, adding that there are sufficient mechanisms for accountability.
mayibonwge.maqhina@inl.co.za