16:22 GMT, September 2, 2010 In what is being called an unprecedented move, the Portfolio Committee on Defence and Military Veterans has decided to halt further deliberations on the Defence Amendment Bill until defence minister Lindiwe Sisulu hands it two interim reports compiled by her Interim National Defence Force Service Commission on conditions within the SA National Defence Force.

The reports were written last year and handed to Sisulu. The committee and the minister have been sparring over the two reports the last two months. The committee has avered it needs to study the reports before it can approve of the Amendment Bill while Sisulu has said the opposite.

The standoff has constitutional as well as practical consequences as it has direct bearing on the powers of, and balance of power between, the executive and the legislature; with executive privilege on the one hand and Parliamentary oversight on the other.

Sisulu's Democratic Alliance shadow, David Maynier, in a statement, said the committee esterday morning resolved hat chairman Mnyamazeli Booi would forward a letter to Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe, as Leader of Government Business, advising him that the portfolio committee had received guidance from Speaker of the National Assembly Max Sisulu that that Parliament has the power to require any person or institution to produce reports; was now formally requesting that the interim reports be produced within a reasonable period of thirty days; that until the interim reports were received the portfolio committee had taken a decision to suspend deliberations on the Defence Amendment Bill; and, that in the event the interim reports are not produced the portfolio committee reserved the right, as a measure of last resort, to compel Cabinet to produce the interim reports.

“This is a major political blow for Minister of Defence and Military Veterans, Lindiwe Sisulu, who has consistently refused to hand over the interim reports of the National Defence Force Commission,” Maynier said. “The decision by the portfolio committee will go a long way to roll back the accountability crisis at the department of defence and to ensure that the defence department is properly accountable to Parliament. The bottom line is that the portfolio committee cannot allow the defence department to revert to the old way of doing things and become a 'state within a state' that is not accountable to Parliament,” Maynier said.

But Booi said that “contrary to perceptions that this was intended as a political blow to Sisulu, the committee was simply acting in line with Parliament's power.” The Mail & Guardian today reports he added the committee took the decision in light of a pronouncement on the matter by the Speaker.
The paper added the defence department however told it it had understood the selfsame statement on the matter – issued late last week – as permitting the minister to submit the reports following a Cabinet review.

Booi had written to the speaker to seek guidance on the issue after Parliament received two legal opinions from its legal advisor, arguing that it was within its rights to compel the ministry to hand over the reports. Parliament's legal position was however disputed in an opinion provided to Sisulu and her department, which cited "executive privilege" as overriding Parliament’s power to compel the minister to provide the reports.

In his statement on the matter, the Speaker backed the powers of Parliament in holding the executive to account. "The role of Parliament in overseeing the executive is an important constitutional function and seeks to hold the executive to account," he said. "Parliament has no intention of relinquishing this right and responsibility, and further, has made its strengthening a priority. For the sake of clarity, we emphasise that, in the performance of its oversight and legislative functions, Parliament has the power, provided by the Constitution, Rules and the Powers, Privileges and Immunities of Parliament Act, to summon any person to give evidence and to require any person or institution to produce documents.”

The Speaker did however indicate that he had received assurances from Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe and the minister that "the PC [portfolio committee] will receive the report after it has been processed by Cabinet", and that the Cabinet would process the reports "speedily".

Siphiwe Dlamini, spokesman for the defence department, said the department was surprised by the decision, as it had understood the speaker's determination to mean that the committee would continue with its work until the Cabinet had released the report. He said that this could severely delay the passage of the Bill, which, it was hoped, would be finalised by the end of the year.

Maynier last Friday said the Speaker's ruling was a victory for the portfolio committee and a complete rejection of Cabinet’s view, expressed the Friday before that the the minister was not obliged to table the reports as well as the executive's view that a “cabinet co-responsibility convention” required the minister to process reports, policy documents and legislation trough Cabinet prior to tabling them in Parliament.


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By Leon Engelbrecht

(Courtesy by defenceWeb. First published at http://tinyurl.com/384koyq)