The ANC party in the South African Parliament is backing an initiative to checking the attendance of the members of parliament with fingerprint IDs and RFID chips.
The ANC says parliament should go ahead with a plan to identify tardy MPs by means of fingerprint scanners and microchips.
Two weeks ago parliament failed to pass the Labour Relations Amendment Bill because of the absence of ANC and DA MPs.
Yesterday ANC chief whip Stone Sizani's office said it supported a proposal to regulate MPs' leave and attendance at sittings.
ANC caucus spokesman Moloto Mothapo said better ways had to be found
to ensure that MPs attended committee meetings and parliamentary
sittings.
MPs are required to fill out attendance slips for parliamentary sittings and committee meetings.
"It's become so bad. You can't have such a big institution registering attendance by [means of] slips," said Mothapo.
Along with the radio frequency identification chips, parliament has
proposed installing fingerprint scanners at entrances to capture the
comings and goings of MPs.
Parliament spokesman Luzuko Jacobs said no agreement had been reached.
"It's not something that we want to impose. We want a buy-in [by all political parties]," said Jacobs.
Moloto said the issue had been discussed at length by the ANC and
that the endorsement of the DA was not required to implement it .
"The DA's procrastination on parliament's leave and attendance
policy, and its outright rejection of the proposed electronic monitoring
system, is illustrative of its obstructionist opposition style that
seeks to frustrate every progressive initiative both within and outside
parliament.
"It would seem that, when it comes to issues of discipline and
accountability among MPs, all that the DA parliamentary leaders are
capable of is to pay lip service," said Mothapo.
He said fingerprint scanning had been implemented at the National
Council of Provinces without complaints from political parties.
