The High-Level High Panel on the Assessment of Key Legislation and Acceleration of Fundamental Change aims to to drill down to the truth of our democratic State, writes Janet Smith.
Malibongwe! The crowd of ordinary people packed into the chairs at the Abbotsford Christian Centre in East London greeted Noxolo Kieviet, now the Speaker of the Eastern Cape legislature, warmly enough. But despite Kieviet’s own effusive words of greeting, the role of the former premier was merely to introduce the High-Level High Panel on the Assessment of Key Legislation and Acceleration of Fundamental Change - and their collective moral weight would surely minimise her own.
As the panel, under the chairmanship of former president Kgalema Motlanthe, started its work to access the impact of legislation after 1994 yesterday in Abbotsford, it was clear who really mattered. Given an opportunity to openly express their views on poverty, inequality, land and nation-building - the challenges which underpin much of our post-democratic law-making - the people were putting their faith in Motlanthe to lead yet another process for change.
The applause for the former deputy president of the ANC rallied around the room as Thulani Tshefuta of the South African Youth Council, a panellist himself, introduced him.
“Halalala, mkulu! Halalala siyathanda!”, Tshefuta called out, and wolf-whistles and clapping bounced off the walls as infants cried softly here and there among the mothers and grandmothers who’d joined the gathering. Similar applause was given to “uMama” Brigitte Mabandla, former minister of justice, who is also on the panel along with such luminaries as former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Judge Navi Pillay, ex-Reserve Bank governor Tito Mboweni and former Auditor-General Terence Nombembe.
They’ll be working with academics primarily from the Universities of Cape Town and kwaZulu-Natal as well as unionists and members of civil society to drill down to the truth of our democratic State.
The panel's consultation is seen as being as extensive as that for the drafting of the constitution
Mandated by the Speakers’ Forum, a structure of Parliament and the provincial legislatures, Speaker of the National Assembly Baleka Mbete announced the establishment of the panel in January. When she spoke about its value - likely expecting a retort centred on why South Africa needed what sounded like another National Planning Commission - Mbete referred then to the supreme law of the land. She reminded the benches that it calls “for the building of a socially cohesive and economically stable nation – united in diversity”.
“To this end,” Mbete reminded, “the legislative sector is mindful of its role.. to ensure the progressive realisation of the socio-economic rights contained in the bill of rights; to realise the.. imperatives calling for the restitution, redistribution and security of tenure of land; to improve the quality of life of all citizens and to free the potential of each person.”
The panel - which on Wednesday completes its work in Abbotsford, before moving onto other areas in the Eastern Cape and then into the other provinces - must investigate the impact of legislation on the triple hit of poverty, unemployment and inequality. It’s got to identify gaps and propose action with the aim to either strengthen or amend laws that need change.
Mbete spoke about how this would serve the “transformational agenda and pursuit of the developmental state, as well as laws that impede this goal”.
The panel’s final report has to be handed to the Speakers’ Forum within 12 months.
It was no small task in Abbotsford for organisations such as the Gender Aids Alliance and the Blind Association to take to the stage together with more experienced social movements like the South African National Civics Organisation (Sanco). But Tshefuta encouraged them, saying the issues which were raised by panellist Dr Olive Shisana were “a problem statement.. the solution to all of those are in this room”.
Indeed Shisana, who addressed the crowd after Motlanthe, didn’t soften the blows as she described what is essentially the shame of the widening gulf between rich and poor.
Motlanthe had told the people, who he dubbed “pioneers” for the high-level panel, that the experts appointed were there for “straight talk without any frills.. to listen to you attentively because it is the impact of legislation in your lives, how it affects you, that is what we want to hear and record”.
The former HSRC CEO, Shisana, then showed how, for example, for many South Africans, “work is not something that is really going to come in their lifetime”.
She spoke about how black men and women were still at the lower rank of earnings, while promotions among whites continued unabated. Shisana explained to the people held rapt in the church hall how the number of highly-skilled black South Africans had only climbed by 3% since 1994, while the percentage of highly-skilled whites had gone from 42% in 1994 to 61% in 2014 .
It was indeed straight talk, but the time has come for it. Pillay had already indicated that she had been at international meetings where the mandate of the panel had been well-received.
Speaking upon its announcement, she said ours was “the first country in the world to undertake this, to scrutinise their own work”, and saw the panel as a South African example which could “again serve as an example to the rest of the world”.
“No country has gone this far to hold itself accountable,” said Pillay. “This is not going to be an empty exercise.”