The members of parliament take the oath of office to serve the public and be loyal to the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa and being member of parliament is not the charitable toiling because they get remunerated through the collected taxes.

In 1999 President Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela in his leave-taking speech from the public office, he labelled it as a “profound privilege” to be accountable to the 1st democratic Parliament of Republic of South Africa, highlighting its role in moving South Africa from apartheid to a constitutional democracy.

The oath of office for Members of Parliament in South Africa is the obligatory commitment taken before a member can begin their responsibilities in the National Assembly or National Council of Provinces, accentuating that they serve the country and its citizens rather than solely their political party.

The Speaker of the National Assembly is the highest functionary in the Legislative arm of the state, equivalent to the Chief Justice in the Judiciary arm of the state, but oversight function is executed and reinforced by various committees, as the Speaker delegates authority to House Chairpersons, who are charged with the responsibility of overseeing committee work.

The disreputable events that led to the 6th of July 2025 press conference by General Mkhwanazi necessitated National Assembly to establish what we all thought will be a credible parliamentary ad-hoc committee to investigate the infiltration of Justice Crime Prevention Structure by criminal elements.

 In a country where violent crime remain extremely high and parliament is presented with the opportunity to investigate what went wrong, one then wonders whether these members who took the oath of office understands that in the public eyes, the legitimacy of this committee hinges on its ability to act independently, transparently, and within the legal framework. The ad-hoc committee that starved of undue interference from the executive authority and political parties. The multipartisan composition of the ad-hoc committee signify the hallmark of inclusivity not competition or political posturing while South Africans are under-siege  

The series of events and conduct of both the political parties and individual MPs necessitate this question, and others may argue as rhetorical, is the work of parliamentary ad-hoc committee on General Mkhwanazi’s allegation compromised?

At diverse times, political parties who are altogether participating in the same committee dispensed different statement that purely allude to complicity of other political parties and to the degree of even accusing the Speaker who represents the National Assembly in litigation matters, of incapacitating the work of the committee, and nonetheless the relationship between the Speaker of Parliament and parliamentary committees is defined by cooperation rather than antagonism.

On January 29, 2026 Mr Mesuli Mlandu the former Executive Director in the City Manager’s office of the City of Johannesburg appeared before the Parliamentary Ad-hoc committee, and amongst the documents that he submit is the letter of the then Public Protector of The Republic of South Africa Adv. Busisiwe Mkwebane in her letter dated 08/05/2022 for the attention of Mr Tiaan Ehlers, Acting City Manager for the City of Johannesburg at the time, clearly states the circumstances surrounding her Report No: 21 of 2020/21 with ISBN No: 978-1-990942-87-7, and this letter with all its content was placed before the Ad-hoc Committee. Instead of engaging the content of the letter, the member of the ad-hoc committee MP Elana James goes off the tangent, using shouting method as the intimidating tool. 

The parliamentarians must stop yelling and screaming as they embark on oversight work but maintain the dignity of the parliament and ensure that the process of the accountability process is effective, constructive, and respectful to the public. 

The political parties and parliament are expected to select their members based on knowledge required in the subject matter under investigation, enabling in-depth, high-quality interrogation, shouting is habitually a symbol of theatrical political posturing rather than meaningful enquiry, which can weaken the effectiveness of parliamentary work.

The habit and over-reliance on shouting, and theatrical interruptions as displayed by members of parliament in the ad-hoc committee meetings frequently disrupts meetings. In these sessions of ad-hoc committee the chairperson MP Soviet Lekganyane is forced to intervene at times because the shouting matches replace in-depth questioning.

Another factor that is key to work of the Ad-hoc committee is the gathering of information, and how do we authenticate that information in the era of AI manipulated generated information. Patrick Smith and Jean-Nicholas Fievet of NBC News on the 3rd of February 2026 reported that Paris prosecutors summon Elon Musk after raid on X’s French offices. Amongst other issues that ignited this raid is the allegation of the violation of personal rights through the generation of “sexual deepfakes,” and the alleged fraudulent extraction of data from an automated processing system, as part of an organized gang. 

It is known that parliamentary instruments necessitate that information, especially when used to support decisions, legislation, or investigations, must be verified, credible, and of known origin. Mr Vusumuzi Matlala appeared before  the ad-hoc committee between 26-28 Nov 2025, Mr Robert McBride between 20 – 21 January 2026 and Mr Paul O’Sullivan between 10-11 February 2026, and during these appearances MP Elana James ditched and asked questions based on the information not known to the chairperson of the Ad-hoc committee and other members, and the problem is the inability to identify how information was extracted often makes it impracticable for official purposes, as it hinders transparency. Untested, shadowy, or wrongly extracted information collapses the relevance and reliability test, particularly in investigations, where evidence must be tested, coherent, and verified.

Members of Parliament takes the oath of office to serve not to fail the public and when oversight becomes a show, and eyeglasses that cause annoyance, the actual work of investigating gets neglected. MP James is using yelling to grab attention than securing accountability. 

* Dr Tony Duba (PhD, ANC MPL)  

** The views expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of IOL or Independent Media.

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