By Zweli Martin Dlamini

Democratically, Parliament is the centre of power where both the Judiciary and the Executive accounts particularly on issues that impact the public either directly or indirectly.

The Judiciary is equally powerful but responsible for promoting the rule of law while the Executive develops Bills and policies to be debated, rejected or passed by Members of Parliament(MPs).

But what makes Parliament more powerful is the fact that, it carries the direct mandate of the people and, the only Arm of Government where the people have direct representation.

Now, the Executive or Cabinet through Tourism and Environmental Affairs Minister Jane Mkhonta-Simelane banned plastics in the country and, this decision is understandable in my view because it seeks to preserve and protect the environment in accordance with the United Nations(UN) Sustainable Development Goal(SDG) number thirteen(13) which calls for urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts. 

The SDG number 13 also involves mitigating greenhouse gas emissions, building resilience to climate-related hazards and strengthening adaptation and early warning systems.

But MPs made a genuine appeal to the Tourism and Environmental Affairs Minister suggesting that, the banning of the plastics must at least, be implemented gradually so that, street vendors whose businesses heavily rely on plastics prepare themselves for the climate change and environmental protection decision.

Well, I read the report submitted to Parliament by the Environmental Affairs Minister and the issue here is not about the responses but, the manner of communication that appears to be in contempt of Parliament.

The Environmental Affairs Minister responded with arrogance saying recommendations by a Parliament Select Committee are not legally binding, this statement does not only undermines the authority of Parliament but the objective behind the selection of Members of Parliament to form a Select Committee for a specific task.

In context, the Environmental Affairs Minister suggested that, it’s a waste of taxpayers money or useless for Parliament or MPs to form Select Committees because the reports are not legally binding

But the truth is, a Select Committee is the Parliament itself or a wing of Parliament and as MP Marwick Khumalo mentioned, it compiles a report and once the report has been adopted by the House, it then becomes a Parliament resolution and legally binding the Executive or anyone to implement it.

The Select Committee was not selected by the Environmental Affairs Minister but by Parliament and therefore, the onus is upon Parliament to determine if it managed to investigate as per the terms of reference and if convinced, the MPs will adopt the report and soon after, it will become a Parliament resolution.

The report submitted to Parliament by the Environmental Affairs Minister in its current form, amounts to contempt of Parliament in that, it seeks to undermine the authority of  the Legislative Arm of Government.

In light of the aforementioned, is therefore advisable for MPs to summon the Environmental Affairs Minister and question her, alternatively, she must be charged with contempt of Parliament.