ActionSA plans to introduce new bill to do away with deputy ministers, cut ministerial perks

CAPE TOWN - ActionSA plans to introduce a new bill to amend the Constitution to do away with deputy ministers and to cut the perks of ministers.

It also wants Parliament to have more say over who gets appointed to Cabinet.

In a second bill, the party wants to introduce additional measures to clamp down on corruption, including permanently disqualifying those convicted of corruption from serving in public office.

ActionSA said it was determined to see a bloated executive being cut down to size and for their perks to be curtailed.

Taking a swipe at the Democratic Alliance (DA), who introduced a similar bill in the previous Parliament which has since lapsed, parliamentary leader, Athol Trollip, said that 43 deputy ministers were superfluous.

He said they did not add value to the executive, spent more on travel abroad than their principals and often did not say a word in parliamentary committees.

He thinks Parliament should sanction the president's Cabinet choices.

"So if he wants to nominate corrupt members of Parliament, people that have judgments against to serve on Cabinet, we must be able to say no, just as we do with the Judicial Service Commission."

ActionSA said there also had to be stricter criteria for holding public office and for doing business with the state.

"All the people who were involved in state capture should be blacklisted for life but none of them have been prosecuted, and none of them have been sent to jail, and none of them have been blacklisted."

The party is proposing increasing the minimum sentence for corruption over R500,000 to 15 years and the mandatory repayment of stolen funds.