The Gauteng Provincial Legislature (GPL) is this week hosting a delegation from the Nyandarua County Assembly (NCA) from the Republic of Kenya as part of an international study tour aimed at collaboration, peer learning and sharing of best practices within the Legislative sector as well as strengthening of inter-legislative relations.
NCA was duly constituted in April 2013 after the General Elections of March 2013. This is after Kenya promulged a new Constitution in 2010 which established two levels of Government which are the National Government and fourth seven (47) counties each with independent County Assemblies.
NCA has expressed a wish to tap into the wealth of experience at the Gauteng Provincial Legislature to improve its efficiency and effectiveness in delivering its mandate in a manner that enhances its relevance to the people of Nyandarua County. The Assembly will also share its experience with regards to regional governments and legislatures for the last 7 years it has been in existence.
This inter-legislative study tour will put particular emphasis on learning and sharing of best practices in three key areas which are: Legislation, oversight and institutional capacity strengthening.
Since the establishment of the 6th Legislature after the 2019 General Elections, Members of the Provincial Legislature (MPLs)have embarked in 3 international tours and have hosted delegations from New Zealand, Bermuda and Kenya. These tours vary from attendance/participation in benchmarking exercises wherein the MPLs and employees learn best practices from other Legislatures and share experience of developments within GPL and the Legislative Sector in South Africa, international conference where they (at times) deliver papers.
The benchmarking exercises are meant to learn and share experiences on the constitutional mandates of Legislatures with the objective of improving the skill, knowledge and capacity of the legislature to strengthen accountability of the Executive thus improve the quality of life of the people of Gauteng.
The value of these tours is multi-faceted given that all Legislatures are Members of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association and participate in critical parliamentary discussions that prevail in parliamentary environments. This strengthens the resolve and commitment to the international parliamentary agenda and the Legislature as a sector. This has also contributed to enhancing oversight capacity, learning and internalising best practice but also sharing information and profiling the country to counterparts internationally as well as measuring our competitiveness on the international arena.
Members of the media who are interested in interacting with the delegation from Kenya as well as MPLs involved in the study tour are urged to contact Mr Thebe Khumalo on 072 266 1021.
ISSUED BY THE GPL’S COMMUNICATIONS UNIT ON BEHALF OF SPEAKER OF THE GAUTENG PROVINCIAL LEGISLATURE, HONOURABLE NTOMBI MEKGWE.
For more information or interview queries, please contact: Mr Thebe Khumalo on 072 266 1021 email: TKhumalo@gpl.gov.za OR Ms Thabisile Nzuke on 082 619 4411 email: TNzuke@gpl.gov.za
GAUTENG PROVINCIAL LEGISLATURE
