What goes into Monitoring Parliament? Behind the scenes with PMG’s Monitors!

In any democracy, access to reliable and timely information is fundamental to participating and influencing the political process. The core aim of the ParliMeter project is to demystify Parliament and make oversight simpler through the creation of a parliamentary transparency dashboard. But to do this we need up-to-date data - something that Parliament itself struggles to provide. Where does the data come from? What are some of the challenges faced in the process? This blog post explores some of these issues.

Monitoring Parliament since 1995

The Parliamentary Monitoring Group (PMG) - one of the three partners of the project -  was established in 1995 with the aim of providing a type of Hanzsard, or a written account,  for the proceedings of the more than 50 South African Parliamentary Committees. PMG monitors parliamentary committees with the purpose of making them accessible, to enable all sectors of society to follow parliamentary proceedings, intervene in the policy and law-making process and monitor committee oversight of government.

At the core of PMG’s monitoring of Parliament are Monitors;, ‘foot-soldiers’ who sit on committee meetings, collate attendance and write detailed reports of proceedings. We have trained over 1000 monitors, most of whom are university students. Through  monitoring, monitors develop writing skills, listening skills, and analytical skills and get a deeper understanding and first hand experience of the lawmaking process and government.

The role of Monitors

Parliament is home to more than 50 committees that meet regularly. On busy mornings, up to 25 meetings can occur simultaneously. On average, there are 1000+ meetings annually.

PMG works with over 70 trained monitors. As part of the recruitment process, they have to complete a writing exercise. If the exercise is satisfactory, they will shadow an experienced monitor to Parliament to see how the process unfolds. This is coupled with the provision of a detailed Together with a detailed monitors training manual, this is the extent of the training.

Each week, Parliament publishes a schedule for upcoming meetings, and PMG assigns monitors to each meeting a few days in advance.

During Covid-19, all parliamentary activity moved online, which made attending meetings easier in many ways. With the establishment of the Seventh Parliament,  most meetings have reverted to being in person in Cape Town. 

For physical meetings, monitors have to collect an attendance sheet and a recorder from PMG’s office, conveniently located near Parliament's precinct.

“I come in the morning to collect my goodies before I head off to Parliament,”  explains a monitor.

Monitors are advised to arrive in Parliament at least 30 minutes before the scheduled meeting because they have to go through security and sometimes there are long queues on busy days. They also need to access various buildings and it can take a while to find the right venue.

Inside the Committee Rooms

Once in the committee room, monitors step into action. Their primary tasks are to collate attendance and record the meeting's audio. These meetings can last anywhere from 2 to 4 hours, sometimes more, depending on the agenda, overall programme and the chair’s management style. However, attending the meeting is just the beginning of the monitors' work.

Writing reports of the meetings is a meticulous process that requires patience, dedication and attention to detail. Monitors carefully listen to the recordings, typing out important information in chronological order to create a comprehensive summary of the presentation briefings and then a comprehensive near-verbatim account of the questions and answers following the presentations to committees . The report includes the names of those who spoke so the reader can attribute the input to an individual. There can be multiple presentations, convoluted questions and overwhelming responses but PMG looks for monitors dedicated to the task. To make the report writing process easier, most monitors make detailed notes of the sequence of speakers and the discussion as it is happening.

Although The Monitors  does have an attendance sheets for the committee members, this is not always the case for but not for otherall officials and delegates who present at meetings.“I will often have to go up to presenters after the meeting is finished, just to make sure I know their name and who they are representing,” explains Amu. 

The reports themselves usually take double to triple the time of the committee meetings to write. However, all monitors have their own process for writing reports, and often, the more experienced ones devise systems to save time. 

Some Monitors have attempted to use AI transcription software, but they found that editing the AI's transcription takes longer than simply listening and typing it out themselves.

Monitors have 2 to 3 working days to complete the report and submit it to PMG. Once submitted, the report will undergo an editing phase before being published on PMG's website. PMG has a small pool of former monitors to largely quality check and proofread the report before it is published. These editors are experienced monitors who are that can no longer able do the daily report writing or have retired. Through the editing, they guide and advise the younger, newer monitors.  Other records such as attendance data and all supplementary documents  are published on the meeting day.

Who are the monitors?

PMG’s monitors are a diverse group of mostly postgrad students of various ages and backgrounds, drawn by an interest in governance and getting work experience.

Gisele La Vita is PMG monitor who recently completed her doctorate in law from Stellenbosch University. 

“I liked the idea of getting an inside view of what is happening in Parliament. It has completely broadened my thinking and understanding of how the government works. I also get to see the dynamics of the Government of National Unity (GNU) in person,” said Gisele 

Her doctoral dissertation looked at how the proliferation of Airbnb has impacted various stakeholders in the  property sector, and as such she asked PMG to assign her to monitor meetings from the Committee on Tourism.

“Attending the Portfolio Committee on tourism meetings has helped me meet the people who make decisions about Airbnb. I have even been able to talk to them about my research and network a bit.”  

According to Gisele, one of the most interesting things about being a Monitor is observing the dynamics between the different parties in person. 

Thandi is a former journalist for the Weekend Argus, who became interested in media analysis and political monitoring before starting as a PMG monitor recently. 

“Politics is something that I am really passionate about. Being in committee meetings you discover so many things you wouldn't think of. Today, in a Health committee meeting, I discovered that dead bodies have been lying in morgues for over eight years!” 

Challenges

Monitoring can be demanding as you have to get up to speed quickly about the subject matter being discussed.

In addition, the deadlines are tight and the readers expect consistently high quality reports in accordance with PMG standards.

Poor audio quality is also an issue from time to time. This could be as as a result of the venue (no microphones) or poor use of the microphones by MPs and participants.

“Sound is the biggest problem. The first time I only used the recorder, and the audio quality was poor,” Thandi recalls. “Switching to my phone made it a bit easier, and I also placed the recorder right in front of the Chairperson for the whole meeting.”

Without reliable audio, monitors can find themselves replaying the same few minutes of recording repeatedly, trying to decipher what was said and who said it. 

“When the MPs speak they are not necessarily thinking that somebody is going to be listening to a recording, they are speaking at a normal pace, but I have to listen to that at a normal pace and type, so that is challenging. And of course there are different languages and different accents because for many people English is not their first language, so you really have to listen and play back carefully,” says Gisele.

This is just some of the work that goes behind capturing the data used in the ParliMeter project. Stay tuned for more reflections on the ups and downs of the data-gathering process behind this project.

Wrapping up

Looking back, thousands of monitors have passed through PMG’s doors, some of whom have become MPs - a real full circle moment. Tens of thousands of reports have been published and read over these 26 years.

To be able to sustain this vital work, PMG relies on the continued interest and commitment of new Monitors as well as …