We welcome all of you at the first of what will in future be the Quarterly Roundtable Series of The Helen Suzman Foundation. We are truly honoured to have in our midst our patron-in-chief, Mrs Helen Suzman. We are delighted to have her with us as we launch this new series which we hope will contribute to debates about the ongoing project of the consolidation of our democracy — a democracy for which she, too, fought “from where she was with what she had”.

We have a highly distinguished panel convening today to analyse, from various vantage points, a crucial topic. We hope this discourse will generate some profound insights and perhaps even some controversies for you.

2007 will be filled with political developments and events leading into succession debates in the African National Congress (ANC) and the largest opposition party in South Africa. Within the context of these events multiple questions that go to the heart of matters of political culture, and the impact that political culture has on democratic institutions, arise. These questions have various dimensions as the institutions in question were forged in the fire of an equally complex transition.

The Helen Suzman Foundation launched its Annual Quarterly Roundtable Series in 2006 aimed at stimulating debate on issues relevant to the future of democracy in South Africa and to explore matters related to politics and governance of South Africa.

This Roundtable on the Review of Chapter Nine Institutions, currently in progress under the auspices of a parliamentary Ad Hoc Committee on the Review of State Institutions Supporting Constitutional Democracy and the Public Service Commission chaired by Prof. Kader Asmal, MP, was convened to ensure that there would be adequate and additional public spaces to further a societal discourse about the Chapter Nine institutions, their constitutional role, performance since their respective establishment, institutional strengths and weaknesses.

With the review process firmly ensconced where it belongs – in Parliament – these material questions need to be answered to strengthen the independence of these structures, build strong bridges between these bodies and civil society, create a clear link between the recommendations these structures make and implementation by government and, finally entrusting Parliament with a renewed sense of commitment to create a strong and robust but adequately respectful accountability architecture to the House for these constitutionally mandated and protected entities.

Last year The Helen Suzman Foundation (HSF) started the Quarterly Roundtable Series. We aim to use this series to further public discourse on matters of national interest and national importance, and we have already hosted two roundtables. The first dealt with the impact of political culture on democratic institutions, and in the second, we looked at the review of Chapter Nine institutions.

Today we have the great privilege of having a number of our leading luminaries in the political arena with us. It is a great honour and privilege to host them, and to have them take the time out of their political schedules to be with us in a year of considerable political development and
political evolution.

They really need no introduction, and I will just briefly go through their names: Dr Gavin Woods of the National Democratic Convention (NADECO); Andries Nel, currently the Acting Chief Whip of the African National Congress (ANC); Jonathan Faull, a political analyst with the Institute for Democracy in South Africa (IDASA); Prof Sipho Seepe, Head of the Graduate Institute of Management Technology (GIMT) and a board member of the HSF; Sandra Botha, the new leader in Parliament of the Democratic Alliance (DA); and Patricia de Lille, leader of the Independent Democrats
(ID) and a board member of the HSF.

The Helen Suzman Foundation started what has become the Quarterly Roundtable Series about a year ago in December, with our first Roundtable looking at the role and impact of political culture on democratic institutions. The series has become quite an institution, and we’re very pleased to present a Roundtable to you today which is going to look at the refinement, or fundamental redesign – the future – of South Africa’s provinces. We’d like to acknowledge the Friedrich Naumann Foundation and their financial support. Without them this event would not be possible.

I’d like to hand over now to Mr Eglin, our Chairman, who needs very little introduction. He will briefly be introducing the other speakers, but if I can be so bold, I would like to introduce my former colleague, who will always live in my heart because, in 1999, I was the youngest, and he was the oldest, at that stage, parliamentarian. We shared that honour together and it was a very special engagement, and I very frequently deferred to his experience and opinion in caucus. I still do, on many matters of constitutional law and on contemporary politics. I’d like to hand over to you, Colin, to introduce your fellow panellists and to commence proceedings. Thank you very much.

It is a great honour for us to host the last of the Helen Suzman Foundation's Quarterly Roundtable Series for 2007. We're doing it at a rather opportune time, a few days before the kick-off, no pun intended, of the Polokwane Conference.

We’ve asked some of the best and brightest analytical minds in our contemporary political environment to join us in a discussion on “The Final Stretch”. We literally are in the final stretch, and there are very interesting events emerging. We have Winnie Madikizela Mandela trying to broker agreements between the Mbeki and Zuma camps. We have various interesting issues emerging in the Free State with respect to delegates who may or may not be voting, and that may stretch to other provinces. We have equally fascinating developments with reference to the ANC Women's League, and the possibility of the parity principle being adopted in Polokwane. All these factors could have a bearing on the events that will unfold in the next few days. As a nation we're obviously in rapt attention to see what the outcome of this process will be. This decision will have an impact on all of our lives.