Parliament has delusions of grandeur

Speech by African Christian Democratic Party MP (NCOP) Kent Durr

27 May 2003

In this new Parliament we make not only law but we create or adopt good or bad conventions. We are in the business of foundational politics, and we have made great progress.

The dignity of Parliament and the way we use our buildings, and respect them, too is important. Winston Churchill said, "First we shape our buildings, then they shape us."

I have a huge problem with the way we are allowing our Parliament to be cheapened by inappropriate or NGO exhibitions. We need somehow to create a venue where departmental exhibitions can take place without making the lobbies and corridors of power look shabby and littered with pamphlets and trinkets everyone takes and few read or use.

The departments also need talking to. I don't know about my colleagues but every morning I am bombed with expensive glossy reports and magazines, produced at great cost, most of which we consign to the waste paper basket. The departments need to filter what they put out and to use lower cost means of production and of informing us. I feel sorry for the trees that are cut down in vane. We live in a poor country. We can't afford such conspicuous waste. A standard format would be easier for us in our oversight function and would be cheaper.

Deputy President, does every department that reports to Parliament need to invite all the members to lunch or dinner every time to celebrate when they read their budgets? We don't need to go out to nightclubs or mannequin parades or gambling casinos to celebrate anything that it is our duty to do, and for which we are paid handsomely! The cost is born by the taxpayers. It is a corrupting and corrosive process.

Cocktail parties, lunches, dinners and fashion parades are all good and well, but not for us who are paid to do our jobs already.

Please let us think about it. We do not want to develop illusions of grandeur.

Finally Deputy President, when the President attends a debate of the NCOP, is it really necessary for him to arrive in a cavalcade of cars from Tuynhuys, only 200 meters away and then to advance up a long red carpet! It is simply too much and smacks of Lilliputian thinking.

I have learned in my life, that the richer or more successful the country, the simpler the offices and the arrangements. The President of Switzerland drives himself to the office. In the UK Ministers offices are rather like a standard MP's office in the Marks Building. The word minister is biblical and means servant. We need servant leadership.

It is vital that we keep our lives here simple and Spartan. We are spending other people's money.


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For more information: Kent Durr MP (NCOP) at 021 403 3519
Media Liaison: Charmaine Horne at 084 370 3550 or 021 403 3307