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The Role of the Secretary of a South African Provincial Legislature

By:
Pieter Pretorius
Secretary of the Western Cape Provincial Legislature
Secretary to the Secretaries' Association of South African Legislatures (SALSA)

Volume 6, Number 2 Fall 2000

ASLCS Home Page

The International Role of the Clerk
The following three articles are based on presentations by the authors on July 16, 2000, at the annual meeting of the National Conference of State Legislatures held in Chicago, Illinois.

Prior to 1994, South Africa had one national parliament with its own Secretary. Nine provincial legislatures were established in May 1994, following our country’s first democratic election, which brought President Nelson Mandela to power. Thus, the position of Secretary to a provincial legislature dates no further back than 1994.

Not only are these institutions relatively new, but the incumbents to the position of Secretary to these legislatures are by and large newcomers to the parliamentary environment. Until 1994, national parliament was the only institution in South Africa where future legislature staff could receive training; however, after 1994, there was, a problem recruiting from national parliament. The majority of the population regarded the national parliament which existed prior to 1994 as an institution of an illegitimate regime and consequently viewed its officials with great suspicion. The African National Congress (ANC), which won the 1994 election in seven out of nine provinces, was therefore at pains to recruit and appoint Secretaries to the new legislatures from among their own ranks. Of the nine provincial Secretaries, all but two (including myself, having more than 20 years experience at national parliament both pre- and post-1994) were new to the game. In addition, the fact that most of the members of the provincial legislatures were also new to organized politics made it understandable that it would take time for the legislatures to find their feet, both individually and later collectively, through various bodies, organizations, and other ways of co-operation.

All ten legislative institutions are full-time legislatures with full-time members and full-time staffs. Whether the provincial legislatures do enough work to justify their existence as full-time institutions is a matter for debate. The average number of sitting days is in the region of 40 to 50 per year. That, of course, excludes committee activities, which in our institutions form a crucial part of the legislative process. Committee meetings take place at more regular intervals throughout the year. The system we have is therefore a relatively costly one.

Although South Africa has a central government and nine provincial governments, we are not a federal state in the classical sense of the word. The provinces are simply not autonomous or independent enough, and are almost totally financially dependent on the national government for their budgets. (Approximately 95% of provincial budgets are in the form of transfers from national government.)

This dependence on national government also has a direct influence on the functioning of the legislatures and, consequently, on the role of the Secretary. I will address the issue of interaction between national parliament and provincial legislatures later on.

The Secretary is the chief executive officer of the administration of the legislature. He is also the accounting officer, and is in charge of the entire staff of the legislature, excluding staff appointed by political parties or individual politicians.

While traditionally the Secretary has always been required to have thorough knowledge of parliamentary procedure and to sit at the Table during sittings of the House, this does not appear to happen in all provincial legislatures. The reason for this is, as I mentioned earlier, that the majority of Secretaries were recruited from outside the parliamentary environment. Personally, I am of the old school and regard that function still as a primary one directly related to a legislature’s core function.

The Secretary is appointed by the legislature itself, or by the Speaker, or by a board or committee of the legislature. Generally, his appointment is not on contract or for a specific period only, nor is it linked to the tenure of a particular political party. Once appointed, he joins the full-time staff establishment and theoretically could work until the normal retirement age -- usually 65. In terms of protocol, he is on a par with the head of an Executive provincial department. Provincial Secretaries in turn are one level below the Secretary to National Parliament.

Although in some legislatures the conditions of service of Secretaries and legislature staff are closely linked to that of the Civil Service, they are not civil servants. In the case of the Western Cape, the legislature staff members are employed by the legislature, with the Speaker as employer, and are totally independent of the Civil Service.

The key features of the South African Parliamentary system remain that of the Westminster system, although major changes have taken place over the years. Provincial legislatures, being autonomous bodies, have adapted the system to suit their own particular needs. The most notable deviation from the traditional Westminster system is that of the proportional representation system that now applies in the country, as opposed to the constituency-based system which applied until 1994. However, provincial cabinets are appointed from among the members of the House, and traditional symbols and procedures such as the Mace, the Speaker’s attire and procession, wearing of gown by Secretary, stages of Bills in the House, and rules of debate still carry strong Westminster features.

South African Provincial legislature staff establishments vary from as few as 45 staff members to almost 150. Therefore, compared to U.S. state legislatures, we are rather small. The administration of a provincial legislature is typically split into two main functional areas, namely Procedural Affairs and Finance and Administration.

As legislatures do not meet all that frequently, but have relatively large full-time staff establishments, personnel or labor-related issues demand constant attention, thereby diverting the attention of Secretaries and managers away from the legislature’s core functions, which are to make laws and to oversee the Executive.

In addition, employment equity, which is an extremely sensitive issue, makes for interesting times for a Secretary, who has to protect the vested rights of white workers while at the same time actively promoting opportunities for previously disadvantaged groups. I always say to people who ask me about my job: "No two days have ever been the same, and no two days will ever be the same!"

What I have just said could be seen as self-criticism, and in a sense it is, but it must be seen in context. The majority of staff members come from the ranks of the population groups which until 1994, as a result of the policies of so-called apartheid, were not only excluded from meaningful decision-taking at the national level, but were excluded from the more lucrative sections of the job market and were effectively denied basic human rights. For the first time, Black workers are now able to feel part of the inner circle. Career-wise, the sky is their limit, and new liberal labor laws assist them in their quest to the top.

I have the utmost confidence that in the years to come, my new colleagues who have the potential and commitment will, through experience, training, and exposure, take the administration of their respective provincial legislatures to new heights.

A serious constraint for provincial legislatures is their budgets. Legislatures compete for their budgets with Executive government departments and generally regard their allocations as insufficient. Provinces have extremely limited powers with respect to the generation of their own income, and legislatures generally have to accept the budgets allocated to them by the respective provincial Treasuries.

At the national level, South Africa has a bicameral parliament: a National Assembly and a National Council of Provinces. The latter body (the NCOP) represents the interests of provinces, and all nationally-introduced legislation affecting the provinces has to be considered by the individual legislatures with a view to formulating voting mandates for their provincial representatives in the NCOP. Meticulous synchronization is therefore necessary between the programs of the individual provincial legislatures and the NCOP, and this requirement often hampers provincial legislatures in their own planning.

Various joint forums exist between national parliament and the provincial legislatures. At a political level, the most important is the Speakers’ Forum, and at a staff level, the Secretaries’ Forum (SALSA).

Some of you may be aware of the failed attempts thus far to establish an inter-legislature body called NIPS, or National Inter-Parliamentary Service, to serve the interests of all legislative institutions in South Africa. It is difficult to speculate on the reasons for the delay or the inability to get such an organization off the ground. My personal view is that it has much to do with the central or too dominant role played by national parliament in the setting-up process, as well as the divergent interests of national parliament on the one side and those of provincial legislatures on the other side. In addition, most of the role-players are new and are having to grapple with relatively new and abstract processes. Maybe, if the provincial legislatures were to "go it alone," so to speak, progress would be swifter. That, however, touches the very core of the political thinking and policies of our country, which to a large extent remains centralistic.

Despite the absence of such a formal organization linking the legislatures, regular contact and interaction does take place, both on a political level as well as at the staff level. The Secretaries’ Forum is in full support of continued and increased interaction with organizations such as ASLCS. We believe that we have much in common, and that it would be mutually beneficial to strengthen our relationship. We look forward to future joint projects.

What I have described is typical of a system in transition. Our legislatures are six years old -- they are in their infancy. It is only natural that there will be growing pains. That is why meetings such as this and interaction with international colleagues is so important to us. What we will learn here from your experiences will without doubt not only assist the process of developing our own institutions, but also assist in developing our inter-legislature associations or forums for co-operation.

For more information about ASLCS, write or call:

Joan Barilla
National Conference of State Legislatures
7700 East First Place
Denver, CO 80230
Phone: 303/856-1349
FAX: 303/364-7800
E-mail: joan.barilla@ncsl.org