Appointment to the Forestry, Fisheries, and Environment Portfolio Committee

It will come as no surprise to those that know me that I was hoping to be appointed to the Portfolio Committee for Forestry, Fisheries, and the Environment. Of course, my entire professional career and academic background correspond to the issues and themes encompassed in this very broad Department. Naturally, as someone with no political experience to draw on, I was looking for ways to make my mark in my new career using my other skills and experience. Our choices in Portfolio Committees have allowed me this opportunity and I have been appointed as one of the two Democratic Alliance (DA) members. Further to that, I have also been appointed as National Spokesperson for the portfolio.

Let me zoom out quickly for those who are not au fait with what Portfolio Committees and Departments are and how they fit into the machinations of Parliament. The President presides over his elected Cabinet (known in combination as the National Executive), which includes Ministers who are assigned to different Departments or Ministries. The President has the prerogative to organize these themed Departments in the way he sees most fitting, for example when he created a new Minister of Electricity post in the lead-up to the 2024 elections. As another example, the environmental affairs component of national government has been in recent years had a dedicated Department, been lumped with Agriculture, and its current model is in tandem with Forestry and Fisheries (DFFE). These Departments are headed by a Director General (DG) who is guided by the Minister (and Deputy Ministers) on matters of policy and oversees the operations of the Department. The Department usually has several Deputy Directors General (DDGs) who oversee different components, for example in the current DFFE there are different DDGs for Biodiversity Conservation and Environmental Programs. Beyond the level of DDG are the many professional government employees that carry out the work of the Department.

Now, one of the primary roles of Parliament is to provide oversight of the Executive; in simple terms, this means to ensure that the President and their Ministers are doing their jobs. This is done in various ways, from debates in Parliamentary sitting, driving issues in the media, and in Portfolio Committees. Portfolio Committees are smaller groups of designated Members of Parliament who focus on specific Ministries or Departments. They have the power to summon the Minister, the Department, its entities, or other stakeholders to account to the Committee, as well as to pose questions to the Minister which they are obliged to answer. In other words, the Minister is accountable to both the President and their Portfolio Committee, and this is usually well respected in government. The Portfolio Committee interrogates the budget, policies, and legislation relating to their Committee’s ambit. It is often said that these Committees are where the real work of Parliament is done, rather than in the larger plenary sittings.

The first order of business in the Portfolio Committee is to elect a Chairperson from the group. Chair positions are sought-after because of the power and pay-bump that accompany the seat. How these were to be divvied up in the new Government of National Unity setup was a hotly anticipated topic. The ANC had, in its infinite wisdom, decided not to allow portfolios where there is a DA Minister to also have a DA Chair. Of course, that rule does not apply to the ANC itself, ostensibly because they have the majority of positions in the Government of National Unity. The ANC is, naturally, concerned that Ministries controlled by the DA should have the additional check of ANC-led oversight to prevent runaway policy and programs. In all cases where a DA/non-ANC Minister has been appointed there is an ANC Deputy Minister to babysit them, and where there is a non-ANC Deputy Minister there is often a second Deputy Minister appointed to water down their effect even further. The hypocrisy is obvious here, especially given a now-bloated Cabinet with a diminished fiscus, but not worth spending time on. Naturally, as the DFFE is controlled by a DA Minister (with two Deputies from the ANC and IFP), we were to elect an ANC Chair. Some of my colleagues were saddled with objectively terrible people and awful administrators, but I think our appointment is a decent one. Honorable Nqabisa Gantsho from the Tsitsikamma region of the Eastern Cape has, so far, done a very satisfactory job.

The next point on the agenda of our first meeting was to hear from the Department itself about its budget allocation and Annual Performance Plans. Then plans are crucially important as they dictate the direction and focus of the Department. We had presentations from the DG and representatives of each of the entities under its purview, namely the South African Weather Service (SAWS), South African National Parks (SANParks), South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI), iSimangaliso, and the Marine Living Resources Fund. We had a chance to ask questions of each presenter about the presentation or other points of clarity about their mandates and activities.

After the closure of that meeting, a report was written up and circulated for validation. Again, we had a chance to make our own edits (I made several). The next engagement is to debate the budget in the House, that is in plenary. The schedule has been split up into several mini- plenaries to allow all committees the time and space to debate, and three committees are now meeting simultaneously over the next week.

Our first committee meeting is on 15 July, and I will be giving my maiden speech in Parliament (although I am not really treating the mini-plenary as the real deal just yet). I am looking forward to it – public speaking and speech writing are two transferable skills I am hoping to use to impress my fellow Committee members and colleagues. I do have to admit to a tinge of impostor syndrome, and a cracking first speech will go a long way to settling the nerves!

As an aside, it will be quite an interesting experience being in a Portfolio Committee with a friendly DA Minister as opposed to being in opposition. I obviously do not know personally what opposition politics is like, but it is all the DA has done and done it very well. Holding a Minister to account without upsetting the party politics side of things is going to be a balancing act that we all need to learn, and there will be plenty of experienced DA old heads who will have to unlearn a lot of what they have built their careers around. The consensus at the moment is that, unlike the ANC treated things, the Portfolio Committees should not be used to shield and protect Ministers but rather to fulfil our obligations as Members of Parliament to scrutinize, critique, and hold each Minister to account. Where they are doing well it is good and well to praise them, but if they are failing or more action is necessary in instances then we should not hold back. Interesting times ahead, indeed…