Cape Town - It has become apparent that parliament's position as a "people parliament" and its role in overseeing government is being eroded, says former chairperson of parliament's watchdog public accounts committee (Scopa), Dr Gavin Woods.

Addressing the Cape Town Press Club on Thursday, he said if this was not corrected soon, it would "surely have detrimental consequences for our fledgling democracy".

Woods resigned as chair of the committee a few weeks ago, citing political interference in the committee's work.

He said parliament was being suppressed and negated, and thereby the critical role the Constitution subscribed to it.

As a result, parliament's performance had become "appallingly deficient" when viewed against that section of the Constitution which instructed the National Assembly "to represent the people and to ensure government by the people".

"It goes on to say that this must be done, among other things, 'by overseeing executive action'.

Executive becoming increasingly authoritarian.

"This is directly linked to the Constitution's separation of powers between the arms of government."

The "neutralisation" of parliament could be attributed to three related causes, Woods said.

The first was that the leadership of the majority party - the African National Congress - mostly through its participation in the executive arm of government, "has purposefully tried to dictate to and muscle in on the business of the parliamentary arm".

"The executive has become increasingly authoritarian in approach and insists on getting its way with new legislation or policy, or when resisting scrutiny and oversight.

"The record shows - what the executive wants from Parliament it gets," he said.

Secondly, was that parliament itself, through the disproportionately large majority party, made it easy for the executive by always acceding to its wishes.

The majority of MPs understood the necessity of this in the interests of their personal careers, and in addition, many actually saw their leaders as the "custodians of an absolute morality and wisdom that God has bestowed exclusively upon the ANC".

"Thus, the Constitution's vital checks and balances have little relevance to them - and parliament's role is seen as little more than to formalise legislation and go through the motions of passing the Budget.

"Then thirdly, I must regrettably refer to the prevalence of weak, lazy and generally ineffectual members in our parliament, which adds to the overall ineptitude of the institution.

"There are few MPs who demonstrate initiative, individualism, intellectual integrity, or meaningful knowledge of the subject matter before them.

"Understandably therefore, the general level of debate and of oversight is fairly poor - and all the while the executive grows more formidable and more authoritarian.

"Good government, democracy and even our liberty depends on maintaining the institutionalised separation of powers that the Constitution prescribes.

"And of course the struggle should always be for parliament to retain its effective and separate authority, in the face of an executive which has superior organisation, resources and influence," Woods said.

With acknowledgements to Sapa and www.news24.co.za