Just another day in parliament...

We planned to sit in on the committee for correctional services but, once again, the schedule was changed at the last moment so we ended up just diving into the nearest committee meeting in an adjoining section of parliament. This happened to be a portfolio committee for International relations and cooperation, which to be honest was not my committee of choice, but nevertheless I thought I’d give it a go.

This particular meeting was an introduction to the new policy before it would be passed in parliament and so many of the terms were discussed in acronym form-making it very difficult to work out what the entire chat was actually about! From what I could understand, the committee persons were discussing a new vehicle to advance South Africa’s foreign policy to address issues such as poverty, under-development and marginalization in Africa and the south.

It seemed as if there was a particular speaker who was proposing a vehicle with the acronym of ‘SADPA’ (unfortunately I did not get the breakdown of this acronym) that would not only be a donor for such African countries experiencing hardships, but it would also act as a development partner.

The SADPA committee looked worldwide at development models in order to create their own and so you can see many models evident within the policy. One committee person asked for examples of how SADPA are helping other African countries. The speaker replied that recently assisting programs have included sending divers over to Tanzania after the sinking of a large ferry has made it impossible for the bodies of loved ones to return to their families. Furthermore, SADPA is also helping with the elections in the Democratic republic of Congo.

Stephanie, Charlotte and I outside the buildings of Parliament.

Another committee member asked how the policy will be accountable: “some people might ask why you are becoming father Christmas…” to which another member added that there is much to be done in South Africa before we should look to other countries on the continent. The speaker responded by pointing out that, for example, South Africa’s involvement in the Congolese elections is wholly needed because there have been implications that would cause a threat to South Africa’s national interests. If cooperation strategies are not extended then migrants and the informal importation of weapons would become a far greater problem here in this country.

It would have been interesting to have followed this line of committee meeting and policy development, but it is also beneficial just to see a snippet of the sorts of oppositional questions parliamentary members put to their fellow members.