South Africans went to the polls on May 8, 2019 to elect public representatives who now serve in the 6^th National Assembly as well as the provincial legislatures. The ANC in the Eastern Cape retained control of the government with 68.74% of total votes cast amounting to 44 seats in the Eastern Cape Provincial Legislature (the Legislature). Currently, there are 63 seats in the Legislature filled by various parties in accordance to the Proportional Representation System:

The job of these 63 elected representatives is law and policy making and to give oversight over the Executive (Premier and MECs). They ensure that provincial government departments deliver services in accordance to the development priorities agreed to nationally which are articulated in the broad Strategic Framework document of government.

This page is designed to help inform, empower and guide you on how you can best engage with our Legislature. The Legislature is the highest legislated structure at a Provincial level that is tasked with oversight over provincial government departments. When citizens’ efforts to engage various government departments over service delivery fail, the Legislature is the place to go, the Ombudsman, and the protector of public interests. It is for this reason that Afesis-corplan has developed this page.

Furthermore, this material is developed to support the active agency of ordinary citizens. To support those who not only want to be voting fodder every five years, but rather want to “follow their vote” to do so.

The first duty of the legislature is to develop legislation. The public can engage the legislature on matters that relate to law and policy. Members of the public can ‘lobby’ the legislature, through writing to the office of the Speaker to develop or amend a certain law. The Promotion of Administrative Justice Act (PAJA) gives specifics of the steps that government entities must follow in responding to written submissions by the public. The Legislature also has its own practice guidelines on how requests from the public are processed. You may want to access these before you make your submission to the Legislature so that you are empowered to engage the legislature in accordance to its established guidelines. If these are not in place, then PAJA is the guide.

The Constitution of South Africa dictates that law-making is done in a participatory manner. The Legislature has to consult the public when it develops laws. You can contact the Legislature to enquire about the laws that are being developed so that the public is aware, that is if the Legislature does not publish this information on its website or through other public platforms.

The Legislature however, does not interpret the law. In instances where there is lack of clarity or ambiguity in the law, the Courts are the institutions that are constitutionally empowered to interpret the law.

The Legislature gives oversight over the Executive. It sets up committees that scrutinise the manner in which various government departments’ work, including how they spend public money. The legislature assesses the developmental impact of the activities of various departments against set plans and budgets. The public is allowed to attend sessions of the legislature as observers. The public can attend the meetings where the legislature scrutinises the performance of various departments. In fact, the public can write to the Committee Chairs of various portfolio committees and draw their attention to service delivery performance issues of departments so that the committees can ask the right questions from the Executive; this is commonly known as whistle-blowing.

The public can also write to a Member of the Provincial Legislature (MPL) and bring a service delivery matter to their attention so that the MPLs have facts and evidence when engaging the Executive.

Almost all political parties have constituency offices where MPLs spend a set number of days in a month given to them off Parliamentary/Legislature duty for such a purpose. You need to know where the nearest constituency office is from you and who your Parliamentarian is. Go to the Constituency office to access information but also attend meetings organized by your MPL.

Note however, the MPL does not replace the ward councillor in your area when on constituency duty. For things that must be referred to the ward councillor for auctioning, take them to the ward councillor. Your constituency officer can assist if the matter is brought to their attention where they can, but they cannot assume the duties of the ward councillor or the municipal council.

Any intent to meaningfully engage with Provincial legislatures demands that one arm themselves with information. Most legislatures have websites in which they regularly post up-to-date information. Some are active on various social media platforms such as WhatsApp, Twitter and Facebook. These platforms have changed the way public participation and stakeholder engagements happen in how they have enabled elected representatives to interact with the public in real-time, increasing public access to them. In turn this has increases opportunities through which the public can hold elected representatives to account.

Civil society organizations such as the Parliamentary Monitoring Group (PMG) with website address www.pmg.org.za has on its website information on the National Assembly ranging from who the members of parliament are and their contact details, to the schedule of meetings in Parliament and minutes of various committees. Afesis-corplan accessible at www.afesis.org.za has on its website some information on the Eastern Cape Provincial Legislature.

A participatory democracy demands that citizens participate in oversight and hold elected representatives to account. This involves more than just voting, but requires citizens to be actively involved in post-election processes such as showing up at community meetings that are aimed at influencing government planning, commenting on the efficacy of those meetings in order to strengthen and improve them, responding to public statements government puts out asking for comments, etc.

This material seeks to support citizens engage with Provincial Legislatures. Information on how local government works and how to hold ward councillors to account abounds, but little is available on how the public can possibly hold MPLs to account or how they could even access them towards strengthening accountability and service delivery.

The provincial government is the second layer of government, between the national government and the municipalities. The structure of the provincial government is defined by Chapter 6 of the Constitution of South Africa which provides that there be a legislature as highlighted above, a Premier elected by the legislature and an Executive Council appointed by the Premier as a provincial cabinet.

Any member of the public can submit a petition to the provincial legislature to bring a matter to the attention of the Legislature or to make a request. All petitions submitted are registered and processed by the Legislature. Provincial Legislatures usually have a Petitions’ Policy which is a public document that members of the public can access and take note of to guide their submissions. The Provincial Legislature has a whole unit that deals with Petitions. This unit receives records and processes petitions.

The Public Participation and Petitions Unit officer in Bhisho is M Ngwanya