16 Sep 2015

Members of the public are allowed to attend Parliament deliberations. The Speaker of the National Assembly, Ms Gladys Kokorwe, said this when addressing a kgotla meeting in Ramotswa on recently.

Ms Kokorwe encouraged the public to attend Parliament meetings. She said public participation could also make parliamentarians account for their time during Parliament sessions.

Public attendance, she said, could could motivate MPs to religiously attend meeting, therefore, Parliament would always meet a quorum. Ms Kokorwe said apart from visiting Parliament, the public could use the office of their Member of Parliament. She said members of parliament linked the community with government. 

She added that community members were allowed to petition parliament through their representatives.

On other issues, she noted that government was still consulting on having parliament debates live on television. She noted that it would be a noble idea to have live sessions, but noted that the development would come at a high cost.

Ms Kokorwe said live debates could also address issues of members absenteeism from parliament as members of parliament will know that their electorates were watching. She told residents that apart from making laws, parliamentarians had various tasks. 

Such included being members of various committees as well as performing parliament oversight function. 

Earlier during her welcome remarks, Kgosi Mosadi of Balete regretted that some schools did not take advantage of the Speakers’ tour although parliament roles and functions formed part of the curriculum. She encouraged schools to acclimatise learners to the roles and functions of bogosi.

Nonetheless, Kgosi Mosadi said Parliament represented the will of the people hence community members ought to know about it. 

During comments, residents raised various thoughts on enhancing community participation as some called on the parliament debates to be live on national television. They disapproved the idea of having parliament meetings adjourned because of lack of quorum.  Ends