Dlodlo: Parly must use social media platforms for two-way communication

South Africa’s Parliament needs to learn how to talk with rather than talk to its people.

That’s according to remarks made by Deputy Minister for Public Service and Administration Ayanda Dlodlo in her address as incoming chair of the Open Government Partnership (OGP) in Georgia.

“A special focus needs to be on responding to legitimate criticism that our Parliament has not been able to achieve a sense of ownership of parliamentary processes by our people‚” Dlodlo said.

She said the country’s citizens “do not yet fully utilise the link to Parliament through which they can engage…directly on issues that affect them in their individual capacity”.

She listed the traditional avenues of engagement – “constituency offices‚ written petitions or as communities with community specific matters that need the attention of the National Assembly or National Council of Provinces” – but added that governments needed to move with the times too.

“We also need to move towards using social media platforms for two-way communication rather than using them for information dissemination platforms as is currently the case‚” she said.

But that’s not to say it was not already doing a good job‚ suggested Dlodlo.

“Since 1994‚ South Africa has been consistent with its participatory democracy actions including in parliamentary processes.”

“Our Constitution directs that we uphold the right of both the individual citizen and or a group of citizens in organised formations to participate in parliamentary processes.

“In the past 21 years of our democracy‚ we have witnessed as a country a growing culture of public participation especially amongst previous marginalised groups on specific community issues such as land reform‚ the management of natural resources‚ fisheries‚ etc.”

As an example of this‚ Dlodlo cited “the Opening of Parliament and the State of Nation address”‚ before which the “president invites input from the public on matters that they want addressed…”

Another was “our activist parliamentary committee system which allows unprecedented room for public participation (and) is one of the hallmarks of South Africa’s relatively young democracy”.

“Unlike plenary sessions‚ committees provide a point of entry for the public‚” she elaboarated.

Dlodlo also had some criticism for the floundering continental watchdog: the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM).

“My experience as well in the African Peer Review Mechanism is that even though parliaments are an integral part of this governance mechanism‚ very few parliaments and parliamentarians are actively involved.

“This‚ in my opinion‚ has to change; our parliaments should not only focus on oversight over national programmes but also take an active role in international governance openness and transparency initiatives such as the OGP and in Africa’s case the APRM.”

Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta was recently reported as being behind an initiative to revive the APRM‚ which has been stymied by a lack of funding and an unwillingness of some countries to be subject to review.