By KEDIBONE MOLAETSI
27 October 2024- The House Chairperson for Committees and Oversight in the National Council of Provinces (NCOP), Dennis Ryder, commended the excellent and successful oversight visits undertaken by the NCOP Select Committees during Oversight Week. The Oversight Week, which took place from 21 to 25 October 2024, is an annual feature of the NCOP programme and a critical mechanism for Select Committees to conduct physical visits to government departments, entities, and services.
Ryder said the NCOP Select Committees undertook oversight visits to five provinces to, amongst others, monitor service delivery progress at various care facilities for older people across the Western Cape and attend to a petition to declare areas with sinkholes as national disaster zones.
He further said this includes observing the work of the Border Management Agency at the Beit Bridge border post and visiting various municipalities in KwaZulu-Natal. Ryder added that the committees remain the engine room of the NCOP, and physical oversight allows for better interrogation and understanding of issues than presentations given in a committee room.
“Oversight visits create a far more personal engagement with the realities on the ground, empowering Members of Parliament) MP to hold the executive to account and assist the executive in identifying challenges and providing evidence-based solutions.
“During oversight week, the Select Committee on Security and Justice, visited the newly constituted Border Management Agency at the country’s Beitbridge Border post in Limpopo. It concluded with visits to the Thohoyandou Magistrate’s Court and Police Station,” said Ryder.
He added that in the neighbouring province of Gauteng, the Select Committee on Petitions and Executive Undertakings, visited Carletonville on the West Rand to ascertain the impact and devastation caused by sinkholes. Ryder said the visit stems from a petition submitted to the NCOP by a resident.
“The Select Committee on Education, Sciences and Creative Industries was also in Gauteng to conduct oversight over six schools.
“This preceded a presentation and interactive engagement with the provincial department of education on various challenges, including the infrastructure backlog, impending budget cuts, sanitation and eradication of pit latrines, and the status of the National School Nutrition Programme,” he said.
Ryder said in the Cape Winelands and Cape Metro Districts in the Western Cape, the Select Committee on Social Services visited various care facilities for older people. He said this programme comes at a crucial time when the Older Persons Amendment Bill.
“This is a piece of legislation geared towards improving the monitoring and evaluation of all services to older persons, as well as tightening up current implementation and compliance measures, is currently with all nine provincial legislatures who are conducting public participation sessions on the Bill.
“The Select Committees on Agriculture, Land Reform and Mineral Resources, and Economic Development and Trade held a joint oversight week programme across the Free State province, which explored the support received by Communal Property Associations from various national government departments,” said Ryder.
He said the joint visit also conducted oversight on SanParks, a Special Economic Zone in Maluti-a-Phofung municipality, the Post Office in Bethlehem, and the Department of Employment and Labour. Ryder said the committee heard, amongst others, that the park has become a corridor for highly organised criminal syndicates involved in the transportation of stolen cattle and horses from neighbouring commercial farms into Lesotho.
“This issue extends beyond the park’s boundaries, adversely impacting local communities and agricultural operations. Another joint oversight programme was conducted by the Select Committees on Public Works and Infrastructure and the Minister in the Presidency, and Cooperative Governance and Public Administration, which included engagements with internal and external stakeholders on the constitutional, procedural and substantive process of section 139 interventions in the Zululand District and Umzumbe Local municipalities.
“This includes the assessment of national, provincial and local governments on social, economic and transport infrastructure in the Ugu District, Umzumbe Local, Umdoni Local, and the eThekwini Metro municipalities,” he said.
Ryder said these oversight visits are critical to the overall functioning of the NCOP in fulfilling its mandate of elevating provincial and local government issues to the national sphere of government. He said members have now seen for themselves the realities facing South Africans.
“The NCOP remains a unique institution envisaged in our constitution, where it brings together local, provincial and national governments in a cooperative manner to identify intergovernmental challenges and carve the way for solutions, embodying the provisions of chapter three of the Constitution, and working towards a government that operates seamlessly, with all functions working in tandem.
“The findings of each visit will be recorded to direct and inform the committee’s work going forward. This will ensure the visits result in meaningful discussions and resolutions on challenges,” said Ryder.
The Guardian 