National Assembly Mps: Are We Getting Full Value?

IN the past, some MPs have been accused of doing little more than ‘warming seats’ in the National Assembly because of their perceived low contribution to parliamentary debates.

However, there has been no attempt by researchers to assess just how much MPs do contribute to debate and which, if any, MPs say very little at all. The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) recently reviewed 19 volumes of Hansard (the official record of the National Assembly) dating from September 2005 to early October 2007. Worryingly, later volumes of Hansard have not been printed and are not available for public scrutiny. However, a two-year period was considered enough to make an assessment of how much MPs were contributing to debate in the chamber.To do this the IPPR measured the number of lines that all MPs had contributed to general debates, motions and questions in Hansard. These were then added together for each MP and a league table was created for all 76 MPs (this figure includes the six non-elected MPs but excludes the Speaker and Deputy Speaker as they do not contribute to debates aside from chairing proceedings). Ministerial statements were stripped out of the assessment so that the analysis focussed on general contributions to debate, questions and motions. No attempt was made to gauge the quality of contributions as this would be a highly subjective process. In this article we feature the best and worst performers and several other categories. The full league table is included in the IPPR paper, ‘Not Speaking Out: Measuring National Assembly Performance’, which is available from the Institute’s website (www.ippr.org.na).The top tenDTA MP McHenry Venaani tops the list of MPs who contributed most. Ben Ulenga, leader of the official opposition, Congress of Democrats, is second. Kazenambo Kazenambo, Deputy Minister of Local and Regional Government, Housing and Rural Development, is the top Swapo performer. Interestingly, Prime Minister Nahas Angula is seventh in the list indicating that he contributes generally to debates as well as making statements as Prime Minister (which were not included in this assessment). MPPartyNo. of lines1.McHenry VenaaniDTA9,0802.Ben UlengaCoD6,4423.Arnold TjihuikoNudo5,2794.Kazenambo KazenamboSwapo4,6825.Kuaima RiruakoNudo4,2676.Nora Schimming-ChaseCoD4,1497.Nahas AngulaSwapo4,0698.Tsudao GurirabCoD3,9599.Philemon MoongoDTA3,84410.Johan de WaalDTA3,606Table 1: The top ten MPs in terms of lines in HansardThe bottom tenThe then Deputy Minister of Environment and Tourism, Leon Jooste, tops the list of the worst performers in the National Assembly. Between September 2005 and October 2007, Jooste did not contribute to any debates. Leon Jooste resigned from the National Assembly and as a Deputy Minister in January 2009.There are six deputy ministers in the list (the top five were all deputy ministers during the period under review) – indicating that they do not see playing a prominent role within the National Assembly as a ticket to gaining full ministerial status, if deputies have such ambitions.Immanuel Ngatjizeko (the then Minister of Trade & Industry) is the only Minister in the ‘bottom ten’ list. MPPartyNo. of lines1.Leon JoosteSwapo 02.Gabes ShihepoSwapo 383.Victor SimunjaSwapo 484.Paul SmitSwapo2165.Petrina HainguraSwapo2196.Ida HoffmannSwapo2647.Immanuel NgatjizekoSwapo3058.Lempy LucasSwapo3269.Evelyn NawasesSwapo34010.Hidipo HamutenyaSwapo348Table 2: The bottom ten MPs in terms of lines in HansardNon-elected membersArticle 32 (5) (c) of the Constitution states that ‘the President shall have the power to: appoint as members of the National Assembly but without any vote therein, not more than six (6) persons by virtue of their special expertise, status, skill or experience.’ Ida Hoffmann and Paul Smit are among the worst performers in Parliament, and the obvious question is why are these MPs contributing so little if they were chosen for their ‘special expertise, status, skill or experience’? Among the six appointees Becky Ndjoze-Ojo (Deputy Minister of Education) comes out the best, followed by Alexia Manombe-Ncube. MPNo. of lines1.Becky Ndjoze-Ojo12972.Alexia Manombe-Ncube10603.Charles Namoloh 5584.Reggie Diergaardt 5065.Ida Hoffmann 2646.Paul Smit 216Table 3: Non-voting members appointed bythe President in terms of lines in HansardOpposition MPsThe performance of opposition MPs varies widely. McHenry Venaani is head and shoulders above the rest, with 2 638 more lines than his nearest rival. While a DTA politician tops the list, the CoD is more consistent as a party with Ben Ulenga, Nora Schimming-Chase and Tsudao Gurirab all making significant contributions. The worst-performing party is the UDF as their MPs hog the bottom section of the table. NamePartyNo. of lines1. McHenry Venaani,DTA90802. Ben UlengaCoD64423. Arnold TjihuikoNUDO52794. Kuaima RiruakoNUDO42675. Nora Schimming-ChaseCoD41496. Tsudao GurirabCoD39597. Philemon MoongoDTA38448. Johan de WaalDTA36069. Henk MudgeRP280010. Elma DiendaCoD269811. Jurie Viljoen MAG238712. Kala GertzeCoD226513. Katuutire KauraDTA221714. Michael GoresebUDF135815. Justus GaroëbUDF131616. Asser MbaiNUDO 80017. Gustaphine TjombeUDF 372Table 4: Opposition MPs in terms of lines in HansardSwapo backbenchersOut of the 55 Swapo MPs 38 hold ministerial or deputy minister posts, leaving 17 who can safely be described as backbenchers. Peya Mushelenga, Tommy Nambahu, and Hage Geingob (who was restored to Cabinet in April 2008) top the list. But the bottom seven on the list when considered together did not even manage the level of contribution of Peya Mushelenga. Women backbenchers feature heavily in the bottom half of this table with Ida Hoffmann, Evelyn Nawases, Lucia Basson, Hansina Christiaan and Loide Kasingo making insignificant contributions during the two-year period.NameOverall PositionTotal Score1. Peya Mushelenga1133632. Tommy Nambahu1723043. Hage Geingob2317954. Moses Amweelo2516245. Chief Ankama2814096. Elia Kaiyamo3313087. Jeremia Nambinga3512818. Alexia Manombe-Ncube4010609. Loide Kasingo50 58310. Royal /Ui/o/oo55 52111. Reggie Diergaardt56 50612. Hansina Christiaan57 47613. Hans Booys61 42414. Lucia Basson63 41015. Hidipo Hamutenya.67 34816. Evelyn Nawases68 34017. Ida Hoffmann71 264Table 5: Swapo backbenchers in terms of lines in HansardConclusionOverall the performance of parliamentarians was not very impressive. Over a two-year period some 36 MPs did not manage to record more than a thousand lines in Hansard. Twenty MPs did not manage even 500 lines.Political parties are currently in the process of compiling their lists of candidates for the National Assembly election. The criteria that parties use to choose their candidates are unclear. However, it would seem obvious that candidates should be expected to have the ability and inclination to contribute to parliamentary debate on a regular basis. This would include the necessary language skills, assertiveness and policy awareness to make meaningful speeches and interventions.As national elections approach, Namibians should consider not only what the parties are saying in their manifestos but also the quality of the representatives they want to see elected.* Ellison Tjirera holds a BA in Sociology and Industrial Psychology from the University of Namibia. He is currently a research intern at the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR). Graham Hopwood is the Executive Director of the IPPR.