Parliament’s legislative squeeze is on. In the past week, parliamentarians and President Cyril Ramaphosa concurred on the dissolution of Parliament. There is now a tight window for the fifth democratic Parliament – until 20 March – to push through a last few pieces of legislation. The offerings of the last five years need to be supplemented.

Parliament’s record in the almost-completed term is not spectacular, judged both in terms of numbers of acts passed and by their importance in transforming society. After all, it took this Parliament the bulk of its term just to help rid the country of former president Jacob Zuma.

The legislation is clearly one of the benchmarks of how well a country has been governed. Monitors of parliamentary outputs often declare success in terms of the number of legislative outputs. It helps to show how well the well-paid Members of Parliament performed. But the strategic, constituency-linked agendas are the crucial back story. It tells tales about support bases and strategic constituencies to be mobilised or pacified. South Africa’s recent parliamentary story delivers rich illustrations.

A handful of important pieces of legislation — some heavily flawed, but bearers of good intent nevertheless — have been delivered since the start of the “new regime” days of early 2018. Others are waiting in the wings. Rushing them through Parliament in these dying moments could grace or disgrace the ANC’s election campaign.

Some poorly considered bills would do well if reserved for sober post-electoral consideration by a new parliament. A few examples illustrate this story.

South Africa’s Copyright Amendment Bill is a graphic case in point. President Ramaphosa and at least two Cabinet colleagues have specifically promised an ANC meeting that this will be an Act come to the 2019 elections. It is close to the point of just awaiting the president’s signature. It holds deserved justice for many, particularly in the performing arts. It is a vocal and potentially powerful electoral constituency for the ANC that will be served through the rapid adoption of this legislation. Imagine the public endorsements of high-level performers at ANC events!

Yet, other parts of the bill, pertaining especially to writing and publication, fail to strike a fair balance, in the words of JM Coetzee, “between the interests of authors and the interests of the users of copyrighted works”. PEN International, the largest organisation of writers in the world, points out that its intellectual property clauses (devoid of fair recompense for original content) raise the spectre of theft. The omissions will have far-reaching and disturbing adverse effects on the worlds of both fiction and non-fiction writing.

Parliament’s legislative deliveries in the past few months have already begun to serve several other critical ANC constituencies.

The 2019 election is the terrain for ANC courtship of traditional leaders. Over several elections, the ANC has become increasingly reliant on rural voters. Urbanites are far more inclined than their rural counterparts to change their party political allegiance from the ANC. This ANC-traditional leadership was even evident in Ramaphosa’s State of the Nation Address: Subtle, but important that several traditional leaders were welcomed by name, unlike in previous years’ speeches.

Parliament has adopted the Traditional Leadership and Governance Framework Amendment Bill; it is awaiting presidential signature. It provides, for example, for extended time frames within which kingship or queenship councils and traditional councils must be established. It aligns the term of office of tribal authorities, traditional councils and kingship or queenship councils with that of the National House of Traditional Leaders. These are small, but significant offerings to a crucial constituency.

Workers and labour are obvious core constituencies as well. The National Minimum Wage Act came into effect on 1 January 2019. Subject to much criticism for sanctioning standardised low levels of remuneration, it improves nevertheless the wages of the lowest of low wage-earners. It also promotes collective bargaining. It is a small, but notable offering against the backdrop of crisis-level unemployment, on which Parliament has yet to show leadership.

To the further benefit of traditional leaders of the particular ilk, the National Council of Provinces passed the Traditional and Khoisan Leadership Bill in January. Critics argue that it gives traditional leaders inordinate power to enter into deals with mining and other companies without proper consultation or consent of affected communities. It is argued that this bill is discriminatory in that it uses different criteria when it comes to the Khoisan in comparison with other traditional leaders. For now, it may help the ANC woo this constituency, but the Constitutional Court may very well be the next stop.

An important recent legislative addition was the Public Audit Amendment Act, which gives South Africa’s Auditor-General the authority to deal effectively with adverse findings on public entities’ management of public funds. It was signed into legislation at the end of 2018 (one of the eight bills adopted in 2018). This type of legislation offers evidence of the ANC acting on corruption and holds out the olive branch of cleaner government to an electorate that rates corruption as the third-most significant issue on the national landscape (besides unemployment and crime).

New legislation is not forthcoming to show that the ANC in Parliament is on point when it comes to leading on crime. Besides, legislative initiatives would lack credibility entirely in a context where implementation of good intentions lack and systemic corruption rules. Instead of legislation, the ANC relies on television news broadcasts of police operations that yield minor community-based successes.

South Africans await delivery in the league of big promises when it comes to issues such as land and health insurance.

On land, the ANC will be able to refer to progress and steps forward. Several initiatives since December 2017 are focusing instead on small and short-term steps relating to state land, title deeds and urban land for settlements. No new legislation is required to achieve these objectives.

For National Health Insurance there are bleak and contradictory prospects for delivery. Rapid action has been promised. Universal access is needed desperately. Yet, if built on a virtually collapsed public health sector, it threatens the entire system, private health included.

There are many pillars to constructing an electoral majority, legislative campaigns included. But beware of the wobbly ones. DM