Western Cape MPLs have complained that the provincial legislature is too small for them to do their jobs effectively.
|||Cape Town - Western Cape members of the provincial legislature have complained that it is too small for them to do their jobs effectively.
During Speaker Richard Majola’s Budget vote on Wednesday, MPLs of the ANC, DA and Cope complained of “serious space constraints” at 7 Wale Street.
Members said there was also a shortage of parking bays for staff and no defined “provincial parliamentary precinct”.
The legislature chamber and Office of the Speaker take up the sixth floor of the building. MPLs, parliamentary support staff and researchers are on the fourth and fifth floors, while the Premier’s Department is on the first floor. Finance, Economic Development and Tourism MEC Alan Winde are on the mezzanine level, while other department staff occupy the second and third floors.
DA MPL and chief whip Alta Rossouw said the legislature was a provincial key point and that the “issue of space constraints” could no longer be “swept under the carpet”.
“It is not right for us to hold committee meetings in the chamber and the auditorium. It is very frustrating. We need more facilities urgently.”
There are only two committee rooms at 7 Wale. The standing committee on public accounts and other committees must often use the main chamber.
ANC MPL Pierre Uys said former speaker Shahid Esau had promised to speak to the provincial Public Works Department about the space constraints three years ago.
“To date nothing has come of that,” Uys said. “In the Speaker’s annual performance plan last year he said more attention would be given to a new accommodation plan for the legislature. I know there was talk of using the third floor of the building, but no one has said a thing since. We don’t even know where the parliamentary precinct begins and ends. There are so many other departments in this one building.”
Majola said: “I will discuss this with the provincial Public Works Department and hopefully we’ll be able to resolve the space problem.”
The legislature has been allocated R102.6 million this year. Majola said his department would upgrade the telephony infrastructure, the legislature’s website and implement a library modernisation project over the coming financial year. Standing committee budgets would also be increased by 25 percent.
clayton.barnes@inl.co.za
Cape Argus