MPs butt heads over electronic tagging
The Democratic Alliance (DA) and ANC are on opposing ends of a proposed electronic radio and biometric tagging system which parliament wants to put in place to curb MP absenteeism.
Parliament has proposed a combination of two technologies – radio frequency identification (RFID) and biometrics (fingerprint) – to monitor the attendance of Members of Parliament at sittings of the houses of parliament and committee meetings.
According to the proposal, the chief whips of political parties would be able to record the attendance information of members of their parties, which will replace the current manual system, which requires MPs to fill in attendance slips.
While the ANC has thrown its support behind the R500,000 system, DA chief whip, Watty Watson said the DA caucus rejected the idea.
ANC Chief whip spokesman, Moloto Mothapo, said that the new system, together with the leave and attendance policy, will ensure that MPs across all political parties are more accountable and faithful to their constitutional obligations.
“It is therefore disappointing that the DA would want to frustrate such progressive interventions by parliament,” Mothapo said.
“We are senior citizens who have been elected to Parliament by the people of SA, and for us to be treated like sheep or cattle being counted is unacceptable,” he said.
DA chief whip, Watty Watson
The DA chief whip said that the ANC supports the system purely because it cannot manage the attendance of its wn members.
“The DA has an advanced Performance Development Management System that ensures its MPs attend committee meetings and House sittings,” Watson said.
Under this system, Watson said DA MPs cannot forego meetings of parliament and cannot take leave during session time without meeting very strict conditions and criteria.
“We requested Parliament to present the proposal for a new electronic recording system for attendance in Parliament on two occasions,” Watson said.
“As a party we were open minded and ready to be convinced of its effectiveness. But twice parliamentary officials failed to demonstrate that such an expensive system would be any more effective than our own internal policy – which is free.”
The DA lead said that Parliament officials admitted that no other parliament in the world had such an electronic tagging system, and instead relied on the effectiveness of a party’s chief whip to their members do their job.
“We do not believe its Parliament’s job to manage ANC MPs who play hooky; that is the role of its chief whip,” Watson said, adding that he would gladly offer his assistance to new ANC chief whip, Stone Sizani, on an effective internal policy to control the attendance and performance of his MPs.
More on Government
ANC supports electronic “cattle tag” for MPs
Free WiFi for SA labour courts
Loading ...