Mhlaba Memela

Mhlaba Memela

Only one opposition member is included in the portfolio committees of the KwaZulu-Natal legislature..

And the IFP is unhappy with the exclusions.

The ANC-led provincial government appointed its own members to all the portfolio committees, with the exception of one member of the Minority Front - a known ANC sympathiser.

The IFP's Bonginkosi Buthelezi believes the move will compromise the work of the provincial government.

He said: "It appears that parliament is no longer central to our democratic system."

He said the previous legislature was characterised by the failure of most MECs attending portfolio committee meetings and many government departments' inability to carry out resolutions passed by the committees.

Buthelezi felt that control over the executive and the legislature would harm democracy.

"This decision runs against the ANC's declared commitment to work with opposition parties as stated by President Jacob Zuma and reiterated by Premier Zweli Mkhize."

ANC provincial acting secretary Sihle Zikalala said it was not correct for the IFP to suggest that MECs would not be accountable to the legislature because chairpersons of portfolio committees are also ANC members.

"There is no way that the work of parliament would be compromised.

"In the previous administration, chairpersons of the committees were ANC members too and they successfully made MECs and departments accountable to parliament and to citizens of KwaZulu-Natal," Buthelezi said.