The National Constituency Whip in the Cape Town Parliament, the honourable Richard Baloyi, officially opened the Lambani Parliamentary Constituency office at Mutshetshe Presidential School, outside Thohoyandou, last Friday.

Constituency work is another struggle where community leaders deliver their political mandate as individual employees of the African National Congress to various legislatures, and as a collective in teamwork amongst themselves and in coordination with their organizational structures.

Constituency offices give regular feedback to individuals, small groups or larger communities in their constituencies on issues of general parliamentary or legislative work, legislation, policy-making, government performance and on general developments in the local area and the country. They also advise constituents on how to go about accessing the services available for them from both the public and private sector establishments. They furthermore perform an oversight function to enhance service delivery by the public sector and, as far as possible, the private sector, to ensure the effective servicing of the constituency areas.

When addressing hundreds of guests, Baloyi said the establishment of constituency offices is meant to make the parliament accessible to everyone. "We cannot all travel to Cape Town for our voices to be heard. We can use these offices because they are meant to take the parliament to the people. When we got our freedom, we said the people shall govern and this is the true explanation of what we meant then. Parliamentary constituency offices are vehicles to connect you with the national parliament and it is best to use them to acquire any services that you are entitled to. Use them to raise your views because they are meant to empower you." He stressed that parliamentary constituency offices cater for everyone without discrimination. "There is free access to the offices irrespective of who you are, your political or religious affiliation. The offices are required to submit reports to the parliament once per quarter so that they can be debated and evaluated."

The MP operating in the Lambani Parliamentary Constituency, Mr Joel Sibiya, said the opening of the office is a dream come true to rural community members who used to travel long distances for certain services. He urged people to make use of the office because it is there to assist them.