An MP for the right reason

I SPENT last week in Cape Town, completing the required registration and then being sworn in as a member of parliament. The experience was multifaceted.

We felt exhilaration, after a tough election campaign, at being part of an 89-member DA caucus in the National Assembly. We were bemused (and a little saddened) by the dress and the antics of the EFF, but were nevertheless grateful that our democracy is still vibrant enough to allow the incredible diversity of views that prevails in parliament.

We were entertained (surprisingly) by the humour of Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng and frustrated that parliament was so ill-prepared to conduct an election when the DA proposed Nosimo Balindlela as a candidate for the position of speaker. But, more than anything, we felt an overwhelming sense of honour, humility and responsibility, having been elected to represent the needs and interests of the South African public.

There might well be MPs who are in parliament for the wrong reasons – to pursue status, rather than service. I hope they are in the minority.

I am there for the right reasons, I believe, and I trust that my colleagues in the DA understand that our role is to serve, coupled with the unashamed driving of the DA agenda that more than four million voters agree reflects the future of this country.

I was rather shocked to come home and read Prof Piet Naude's unnecessarily acerbic column ("Here's how to represent us", May 20). I read Naude's column every week and mostly resonate fully with his views, but not this time.

Naude states, "There was no open application process, no objective interview process, no setting of minimum standards." How wrong he is. Every DA MP went through a rigorous selection process based, in part, on the results of our equally meticulous pre-election performance management system assessments.

The process included two separate arduous interviews and a constant reference to very demanding minimum standards. We are not in parliament because a group of insiders put us there, as Naude asserts.

Every one of us has been adjudged, by detailed and appropriate criteria, to be fit for the purpose. We understand, all of us, that we are there to serve South Africa first and our party second. We do not place party loyalty ahead of the commitment we have made to South Africa.

(In most cases, the two – country and party interests – are conflated, since we believe strongly that the DA policies would see South Africa flourish.)

We do not, by any means, find ourselves in a "soft-feathered nest". Our lives are far from glamorous. They are, to say the least, dysfunctional, with much time away from home and exceptionally long hours. Sacrifice is the order of the day.

I invite Naude to visit parliament, and to meet me and my colleagues. Then I invite him to write about how DA MPs are setting the example, working uncompromisingly to defend our democracy.

Annette Lovemore DA MP