Members of the Provincial Council of KwaZulu-Natal are currently in Namibia on a two-day benchmark study visit aimed at enhancing their systems and processes within the legislature.
The delegation comprises members from two standing committees: the Rules Committee and the Programme Committee.
They will focus on conducting benchmark activities related to ethics, parliamentary programming, oversight, and public participation models, as well as standing rules and orders.
These areas of interest aim to enhance their understanding and implementation of best practises.
During their visit to the National Council, Speaker Nontembeko Boyce of the KwaZulu-Natal Legislature expressed their anticipation of learning from Namibia's experiences and best practises in terms of overseeing and reviewing bills.
"Namibia is at the top because you are, like us, also having the National Council, and we wanted to understand once you are a provincial legislature, how does the process of law come back down to us? It is a little bit affecting us in the manner that the programme of the legislature gets affected and the roles when it comes to the cycle of the bills and actual oversight."
In response, the Chairperson of the National Council, Lukas Muha had this to say: "The benchmark visit is in line with the aims and objectives of the commonwealth parliament association which among others calls for the exchange visits between members of branches and associations. Our responsibility is to review the bills sent to us from National Assembly however we have other responsibilities."
The delegation also paid a courtesy call to the National Assembly where they met Speaker, Professor Peter Katjavivi.
"We must attach great importance to this kind of consultation sharing ideas, comparing notes, for the greater good of our two countries, we are conscious of the fact that we need to change with time in order to meet the needs and aspirations of our people to think to change and we should also and we should also be flexible enough to adapt to the necessary changes that are taking place," said Katjavivi.
The delegation from the KwaZulu-Natal Legislature Joint Committees on Rules and Programme consists of 16 members.