NEED FOR AN UNBAISED SPEAKER IN SOUTH AFRICAN PARLIAMENT
South Africans have become accustomed to chaotic scenes of disorderly conduct in Parliament in the past couple of years. The recent State of the Nation address (#SONA2016) is a case in point. Many blame opposition parties like the EFF for ill-discipline and deliberate disorderly conduct.
In my view, however, the root cause of much of the disorder in parliament can be attributed to the various Speakers. In the first place the Speakers, who are appointed by the ruling party, seem to have difficulty with the concept that once appointed as Speaker, they are required to adopt an even-handed unbiased approach to house proceedings. In this regard, present speakers often fail miserably.
Secondly, the speakers are required to have a thorough understanding of the rules of Parliament and must be able to apply them fairly at all times. It is quite evident that the present Speakers do not have the rules of the House at their fingertips.
There is a need to eliminate any bias in favour of the ruling party by the Speaker. I suggest the following Constitutional Amendment be urgently introduced.
The Speaker, instead of being an MP, elected by the majority of MP's, ought to be a sitting Judge of the High Court, seconded to Parliament on a weekly rotational basis.
Not only will a Judge, by virtue of his or her office and training, be far more impartial, a Judge will also be able to make impartial rulings about Parliamentary procedure and this would certainly go a long way to make Parliament more accountable.
If the Judges who sit as Speaker are regularly rotated, sitting only for one week at a time, it will go a long way to addressing any fears that a particular Judge may have undisclosed political loyalties to one party or another.
Of course, a provision to interdict any Judge who fails to act impartially while acting as Speaker, or who has known strong political affiliations from acting as Speaker may be required. A High Court application should be all that is required to remove such Judges from the list of those whose names can be placed on the Duty roster to act as Speaker of Parliament.
In addition, a Judge sitting as Speaker could be empowered to warn Parliament when, in his view, a proposed Bill contains an unconstitutional provision, although he ought not have any power to make a ruling to that effect.
The Judge sitting as Speaker could also make non-binding suggestions as to how Parliament might improve the wording of a Bill so as to give effect to its intention and to avoid ambiguity. This could save the citizens thousands of rands in legal costs in later Court cases to deal with ambiguous legislation or legislation which is worded in manner which has unintended consequences.
Of course, Parliament would be free to ignore the Judge's advice or guidance as to the wording or constitutionally of proposed Bills.
One cannot have a Judge exercising any Judicial powers in a Legislative House. Save for the said practical and sensible right to advise or guide on legislation (which power should be extremely limited) I propose that the Judge would be limited to the exercise of the powers and functions presently exercised by the Speaker.
I do not believe that this practical amendment would impact negatively on the required separation of the legislative, executive and judicial functions of government.
I accept that in the UK, for example, the tradition that the Speaker is elected by the House of Commons is long standing and it works there. However, it does not work in South Africa. And for this reason, I have suggested that the South African Constitution be amended as above.
Siegfried Walther 2016
Also By Siegfried Walther: In Guards We Trust
http://siegfriedwalther.blogspot.co.za/2016/02/in-guards-we-trust-chapter-1-free.html
MH370 & AF 447
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/526079
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