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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 CAPE TOWN 000195 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV KDEM SF
SUBJECT:  PARLIAMENT'S FIRST 100 DAYS-OFF TO A SLOW START 
 
CAPE TOWN 00000195  001.2 OF 002 
 
 
¶1. (SBU) Parliament's first one hundred days (minus the three week 
recess) have been marked by new MPs finding their way around 
Parliament, both literally and figuratively, inefficiency and lack 
of clear guidance for the task at hand. Because over 60 percent of 
Parliamentarians are new, many MPs are unsure of not only the role 
that Parliament plays in the national arena, but are also uncertain 
as to their own role as Members of Parliament.  The Parliamentary 
session began with each Ministry discussing their budgets and what 
they plan to do with their allocated funds over the upcoming year. 
Some budgets were passed with little debate, while others, such as 
the Health department budget, were debated heavily by the 
opposition.  Because the ANC holds a majority of the seats in 
Parliament with 264 MPs, all budgets were passed by the National 
Assembly and those Ministries that are asking for more such as 
Defense and Veterans Affairs will be re-visited in November during 
the medium term budget debate. 
 
¶2. (SBU) When Poloff recently asked a Member of Parliament to brief 
a visiting Congressional delegation on the role of Parliament; the 
MP was unable to do so because she was new, "and did not really 
understand how Parliament works."  Even many of the veteran MPs are 
confused as to their roles in Parliament since many of them are 
serving on new committees and do not have any experience in the 
group in which they are now serving.  Additionally, the number of 
committees has been greatly expanded to cover in-house issues as 
well as to mirror the expansion of the Cabinet and MPs simply do not 
understand the role of all the new committees.  All committees with 
the exception of one are chaired by the ANC.  Chris Gololo, who 
currently serves on the Defense and Military Veterans, the Public 
Enterprise, and the Mining Committees (and who previously served on 
the Education Committee), told Poloff, "I do not know anything about 
my committees, I am still learning." 
 
¶3. (SBU) Over the past several weeks, Poloff attended various 
committee meetings and the sessions are all the same:  MPs are 
trying to figure out the mandate of the committee and the best way 
to carry out that work.  During Poloffs attendance at several 
sessions of the International Relations and Cooperation Committee, 
the committee members have publically said they are noTJ1o!ang an 
oversight role, "since there is not much legislation in the 
committee now."  Instead of building on the work the committee did 
in the last session, they are starting from scratch.   There was a 
discussion about what outsiders would be allowed to brief the 
committee, but no decision was made.  Recently, former Deputy 
Foreign Minister Fatima Hajig and former chair of the committee, who 
is now a back-bencher, briefed the group on how she perceives the 
role of the committee and what she feels the committee must do. 
Comment.  Most of the committee, even members of her own party (ANC) 
did not seem to heed her remarks.  End comment. Note.  It is unusual 
for a MP who is not part of a particular committee to attend the 
meeting and brief the committee.  End note. 
 
¶4.  (SBU) The DA with 67 seats in Parliament is the official 
Q4.  (SBU) The DA with 67 seats in Parliament is the official 
opposition in Parliament.  Poloff spoke to Sandy Kaylan, a member of 
the DA Shadow Cabinet about the role the DA is playing in Parliament 
and about the role of the newly formed Shadow Cabinet.  Kaylan said 
the Shadow Cabinet plays an oversight role, provides input to the DA 
caucus as to what is happening in their respective committees, and 
discuss the way forward for specific issues and portfolios.  There 
has only been one Shadow Cabinet meeting since the opening of the 
Fourth Democratic Parliament and at this point their discussions are 
being kept private with possible public disclosure in the future. 
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The DA has also taken a bold step and proposed to Parliament that 
Minister's and MP's air travel be restricted to economy class and 
that there be a reduction on the cost of Ministers vehicles and 
other benefits. In recent weeks the DA has reportedly been in talks 
with COPE, the United Democratic Movement, and the Independent 
Democrats to discuss their "re-alignment" under one party. 
 
¶5. (SBU) The first one hundred days of Parliament have been 
relatively quiet with MPs trying to find their footing.  However, 
one major event is the investigation of Democratic Alliance (DA) 
Shadow Minister for Defense, David Maynier, by the ANC for releasing 
information about possible arms sales to other countries.  On August 
2, DA Shadow Minister for Defense, David Maynier hosted a press 
conference at Parliament where he released information regarding the 
 
CAPE TOWN 00000195  002 OF 002 
 
 
arms trade in South Africa.  Maynier alleged that the National 
Conventional Arms Control Committee (NCACC), made up entirely of ANC 
Ministers and Deputy Ministers, "is arming dictators all over the 
world."  The NCACC is supposed to ensure a legitimate and effective 
process for controlling trade in conventional arms.  If the weapons 
could be used to contribute to internal repression, violate human 
rights, violate fundamental freedoms, contribute to the escalation 
of regional conflicts or contribute to terrorism or crime, and then 
the weapons should not be exported.  Maynier alleges that deals have 
either already been authorized with some countries, namely Libya, 
Syria, Venezuela and North Korea and pending with Iran and Zimbabwe. 
Justice Minister Jeff Radebe who heads up the NCACC, denied that 
any weapons have been sold to these countries, but admitted that 
deals with some of these countries were under consideration.  In 
response to Maynier's accusations, the ANC has asked the National 
Assembly to investigate whether Maynier contravened the National 
Conventional Arms Control Act.  If Maynier is found to have violated 
the act, he could be criminally charged.  The Chair of the Defense 
Committee, Mr. Nyami Booi told Poloff that the ANC has hired a 
lawyer to investigate this matter. 
 
¶6. (SBU) Joan Fubbs, Committee Chair of Trade and Industry, told 
Poloff that the Parliamentary budget is much too low.  Because 
President Zuma expanded the Cabinet, the committees in Parliament 
have also been expanded, but Parliament's budget is not sufficient 
to cover the increase in committees.  Five committees in the 
National Assembly and two committees in the National Council of 
Provinces do not have any support staff and there is no money in the 
current Parliamentary budget to hire any until November when the mid 
term budget is revisited.   On July 2, during the debate on the 
Parliamentary budget, Speaker Max Sisulu said that Parliament's 
budget is .18 percent of the national budget, which is lower than 
all national departments whose budgets range from 0.3 percent to 
48.4 percent of the total national budget.  Sisulu said, "Parliament 
is underfunded by 143 million rand." 
 
¶7. (SBU) The Congress of the People (COPE), a breakaway party of the 
ANC, has failed to live up to expectations. Instead of driving the 
debates about economic transformation and service delivery it has 
remained silent, its 30 National Assembly representatives are 
largely invisible. The COPE leadership is engaged in squabbles about 
who should be its leader rather than focusing on driving debates and 
agendas in Parliament. COPE's second deputy president and member of 
Parliament, Lynda Odendaal, and the party's election head, Simon 
Grindrod, have recently resigned from COPE, fuelling speculation 
that the party is in trouble.  Recently Mbhazima Shilowa, COPE's 
deputy president, has hinted about pacts with other opposition 
parties, including the DA, to consolidate the opposition force in 
the 2011 municipal polls. COPE's future as an independent party at 
this time looks bleak. Comment.  Whenever members of COPE address 
Parliament, ANC MPs always heckle them by screaming, "traitor" and 
not allowing them to speak.  End comment. 
 
¶8. (SBU) The Fourth Democratically elected Parliament seems to be 
off to a slow start.  Many MPs have been assigned to several 
committees and committee membership was not finalized until last 
week, with several last minute shifts of MPs to yet another 
committee.     One MP who previously served on the Mining Committee 
Qcommittee.     One MP who previously served on the Mining Committee 
and who recently travelled around the country to look at illegal 
mining operations and study the safety of mining in the country has 
now been taken off that committee and reassigned.  Comment.  The MPs 
themselves are a bit confused by this process and are frustrated 
that they are being forced to learn about issues they know nothing 
about.  However, this is mostly limited to the ANC MPs who tow the 
party line and serve where the Chief Whip tells them to serve 
without question.  The DA seems to have made more of an effort to 
place its members in committees commiserate with their experience. 
Parliament's confusion and slowness to tackle the task at hand seems 
to be in contrast to Zuma's perceived successes during his first 100 
days in office.  End comment.