Parliament has made available more venues for meetings of portfolio committees more than a year after fire gutted some of the buildings in the precinct in January 2022.
The institution has been battling with venues after the National Assembly and Old Assembly Chamber buildings, which had offices and meeting venues, were damaged.
This led to the committees holding virtual meetings and, lately, some convening hybrid meetings.
Recently, there has been a push for physical gatherings due to load shedding intensifying and connectivity issues with online platforms.
Secretary to National Assembly, Masixole Xaso, said a document was circulated to the chief whips forum on Wednesday to give a sense of venues in Parliament to enable committees to meet.
“We have 15 venues, if you exclude the Good Hope Chamber, that can be used for physical meetings of committees,” he said.
A presentation made to the committee showed that the venues have a seating capacity that ranged between 15 and 120 in the Good Hope Chamber, Marks Building, 90 Plein Street building and Parliament Towers building.
Xaso said there were currently two venues where committees could meet in a hybrid format and others were not yet hybrid-enabled.
“But the Secretary to Parliament is prioritising making those venues hybrid-enabled,” he said.
Xaso also said they have identified two venues that would be used for the budget votes debates from May 9 until May 26.
“We have identified Good Hope Chamber and S12 A for those physical meetings. We indicated to the chief whips forum yesterday that we are working on committee room 1 and 2, which can take up to 72 people (as back up),” he said.
“The intention is those meeting be fully physical so there will be no hybrid session for budget votes,” Xaso said.
ANC chief whip Pemmy Majodina said they had agreed to encourage MPs to come back to Parliament for physical meetings.
She said the budget vote debates would be staggered due to the capacity of the venues.
“While members have the right to attend any meeting, it is not possible for all members to get into physical attendance because of the numbers that are limited,” Majodina said.
Additionally, she stated that MPs should no longer feel at ease using virtual platforms.
“Let us make Parliament work notwithstanding that we have challenges of venues.”
DA chief whip Siviwe Gwarube said it was a step in the right direction given the budget votes they were headed towards.
“It is also important to emphasise this also requires ministers, in particular, to be able to attend in person because that will be important as we have seen in hybrid sittings deputy attending or ministers not being there.
“We hope we can see the expansion of this for other sittings,” Gwarube said.
EFF MP Hlengiwe Mkhaliphi said they had as chief whips agreed to encourage members to attend the physical meeting because Parliament must be opened.
“The accountability of those who must account to Parliament must happen and to continue to meet on Zoom is going to be a problem because we still have load shedding and it seems as if load shedding is going to continue,” Mkhaliphi said.
However, Mkhaliphi also said they wanted answers about those committees holding their meetings at hotels since there was limited space in Parliament.
“We need to get clarity in terms of why and how other committees can meet in hotels,” she said.
IFP chief whip Narend Singh said the administration should by next week unpack what the provision of more committee rooms really meant.
“If we are to have venues and cannot accommodate members in that venue at that particular moment, it is going to be problematic,” she said.
“If we want all our members to be in Cape Town, then we will be assured that whatever room that will be used will be adequate for them to sit in and even officials, who sometimes advise ministers when questions are asked, may have space in those rooms,” Singh said.
Cape Town