Parliament is on tenterhooks for President Cyril Ramaphosa to announce his Cabinet so it can establish its oversight committees to reflect ministers' portfolios. Adopting the Budget by 31 July, a hard statutory deadline, will be the first test of this new cooperation.

The pickle for Parliament will be its watchdog on government spending, the Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa), because traditionally it's been chaired by an opposition political party.

With the government of national unity (GNU) that now consists of the ANC, DA, IFP, Patriotic Alliance (PA) and Good, the official opposition in the National Assembly is uMkhonto Wesizwe (MK), the six-month-old political disruptor led by ex-president Jacob Zuma.

It is highly unlikely the MK party will become the chair of Scopa given its political orientation, which was signalled by its boycott of the 14 June first sitting of the National Assembly and the lack of clarity on when its MPs will present themselves to be sworn in. That would leave ActionSA or Rise Mzansi, which have situated themselves on the opposition benches, to provide the Scopa chairperson. Or it could go to the Freedom Front Plus if it decides not to join the GNU.

Committee chairpersons in Parliament are central to directing the work of committees -- and the depth of oversight. The Zondo State Capture commission was scathing about the series of parliamentary oversight failures and inefficiencies.

In the State Capture years of the Zuma presidency, a cluster of...