Speaker of provincial legislature tables policy and budget speech
The Speaker of the Mpumalanga Provincial Legislature, Makhosazane Masilela, tabled her maiden policy and budget speech for the 2020/21 financial year.
She gave an account on the fulfillment of the legislature’s mandate, which is to hold the executive and other state organs accountable through oversight, public participation and law-making.
“We are therefore challenged by the generation of 1976, as this law-making body, to transform through democratic means the institutions of power in our society that continue to resist and reproduce inequality and social difference.
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To this end, as an activist legislature, our immediate task is to refashion and reengineer all our efforts to ensure clear government response to these pressing challenges,” said Masilela as she addressed youth-related matters, as the speech was delivered a few days before the country commemorates June 16.
She committed that the sixth legislature would continue to use the Mpumalanga Provincial Legislature Oversight Model as a guiding document for conducting oversight.
She also stated that the legislature would continue to involve the public in the processes and programmes of the legislature through public hearings, petition processes, sector parliaments, sittings of the house and initiatives such as Taking the Legislature to the People.
She further acknowledged that the country was still faced with the Covid-19 pandemic and as a result, the legislature had adopted initiatives that enabled it to use technology to ensure that the public remained informed, involved and educated.
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Masilela reported that the legislature managed to process 12 bills during the 2020/21 financial year.
“In light of the financial constraints and budget cuts faced by the legislature, we shall continue with more cost-curtailment measures and a reprioritisation of programmes,” she continued.
She thanked all members of the Speakers’ Forum, which includes Speakers of both local and district municipalities, for their active participation in the forum, and also wished them well as they concluded their term of office.
Masilela reported that the construction of the parliamentary village was still in progress; it was estimated that it would be completed this financial year. “I therefore present to you and request this sitting to appropriate for the 2021/22 financial year an amount of R376 813 000 that will be allocated to programme 1, administration, and programme 2, parliamentary business,” said Masilela.
