Then Johannesburg mayor Amos Masondo answers questions during a press conference on the chaos caused by the city's computerised billing system. (Photo by Gallo Images/Sowetan/Veli Nhlapo)

ANC MP Amos Masondo has been proposed to fill the vacant post of chair of Parliament's Joint Standing Committee on Intelligence (JSCI) in a move that has raised eyebrows in opposition party circles. It's one of the twists and turns at the national legislature where, with another three-week recess is coming up for MPs to electioneer. The pressure is on to deal with a chock-a-block in-tray.

The Joint Standing Committee on Intelligence (JSCI) is the only parliamentary committee established in law - under the 1994 Intelligence Services Oversight Act - in a clear sign of how seriously the first democratic Parliament regarded oversight of intelligence services.

But the committee that has become the only one, as a rule, to sit behind closed doors has not had a smooth path. Under its chair, ANC MP Cecil Burgess, the committee's statutorily required annual reports were simply not filed on deadline, and the ANC push from 2015 to have Burgess become the intelligence inspector-general effectively had the committee cause an almost two-year vacancy in a statutory oversight...