One of the three parliamentary defence oversight committees is up and running, a chair has been named for another and the third awaits direction from Parliament’s Joint Rules Committee.
Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Defence and Military Veterans (PCDMV) is constituted and operational under the chairmanship of African National Congress (ANC) North West public representative Dakota Legoete. Its first meeting was on 12 July ahead of the defence and military veterans’ budget presentation on Monday 15 July.
The PCDMV is set for its second meeting on Thursday this week – one of 27 Parliamentary committees tasked with oversight of government activities meeting in Cape Town as parliamentary work speeds up under the newly formed seventh administration. According to a Parliamentary Communication Service statement the meeting will receive the “legacy report” of its predecessor and meet support staff assigned to it.
Not yet constituted is the Joint Standing Committee on Defence (JSCD), which is made up of public representatives from the National Assembly (NA) and the National Council of Provinces (NCOP).
While not confirmed, the delay in making public JSCD members is believed to involve the now separate correctional services and justice Cabinet portfolios. These were, in the sixth administration, the responsibility of Ronald Lamola, now President Cyril Ramaphosa’s point man for international relations. The justice portfolio now stands alone with Minister Thembi Nkadimeng (ANC) at the helm while Freedom Front Plus leader Pieter Groenewald is Correctional Services Minister in the government of national unity (GNU).
The JSCD is constitutionally tasked to investigate and make recommendations on the budget, functioning, organisation, armaments, policy, morale and state of preparedness of the SA National Defence Force (SANDF).
The third defence oversight committee resides in the NCOP as a Select Committee on Security and Justice (SCSJ) and has to keep a weather eye on a number of government departments including Correctional Services, Defence and Military Veterans, Home Affairs, International Relations, Justice and Police. A Parliamentary insider, preferring anonymity, told defenceWeb the SCSJ department workload meant it did not “regularly focus on defence matters”.
Seboletswe Mananiso, an ANC public representative in the NCOP and previous NA party whip, is chair of the newly constituted seventh administration SCSJ.
Cyril Xaba (ANC), joint chair with Mamagase Nchabeleng of both the JSCD and PCDMV in the previous administration, was earlier this month named mayor of eThekwini Municipality in KwaZulu-Natal.
