The National Assembly's battered image
could be restored if Parliament re-opens discussions on the arms deal, an
independent panel reviewing the performance of the legislature said on Tuesday.
Presenting the panel's report on Parliament's performance review initiated in
2006, the panel's chairperson Prega Govender said controversies surrounding the
arms deal had done tremendous damage to the
legislature.
"The panel recommends that Parliament should revisit the arms deal and take such
steps as are necessary, including a debate on the adoption of a resolution
calling for the appointment of such a judicial commission of enquiry into the
arms deal," she said.
The assessment panel comprising leading political and constitutional experts,
including Stellenbosch University Chancellor Frederick van Zyl Slabbert and
political analysts Judith February and Sipho Seepe, was
commissioned by Parliament.
Its recommendations on the arms deal were tabled a few weeks after President
Kgalema Motlanthe rejected a request for the matter to be investigated by an
independent commission of inquiry.
National Assembly Speaker Gwen Mahlangu-Nkabinde said while Parliament welcomed
the panel's findings and recommendations, it was
up to the next generation of MPs who would come in after the 2009
elections, to decide whether to implement the recommendations.
The panel also highlighted Parliament's weak oversight processes, its failure to
adequately consult the public on matters of national interest and a failure by
its members to adhere to high moral standards.
However, Mahlangu-Nkabinde said the current National Assembly leadership had
already initiated a number of processes to rectify many of the weaknesses
highlighted in the report.
"We never said we had to wait for the panel to give us a report in order to
address certain things - we had continued to do our work," she said.
The Democratic Alliance said the panel's recommendations resonated with its
views that Parliament had been neglecting its oversight role.
"The DA has repeatedly voiced its concern over the fact that Parliament has
increasingly failed to fulfil its constitutional obligations, namely, to ensure
oversight over the Executive, to ensure that issues of a national significance
are debated and considered," the party's Chief Whip Ian Davidson said in a
statement.
The DA, Davidson said, had already taken a number of steps in Parliament with
regard to the panel's recommendations, including calling for a commission of
inquiry into the arms deal.