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At the end of apartheid the first non-racial government of South Africa set upon a programme of transforming parliament into a 'People's Parliament'. This paper examines the implications of one aspect of this programme for the rituals, norms and practices of the institution. It asks in what way the changes to parliament's formal rules have contributed to the creation of new parliamentary norms and rituals that reflect the desire for an open and participatory legislative process; and it assesses the extent to which the changes have been undermined by broader political developments over the course of the first two parliaments. The article finds that in the early years the new rules helped Members to establish an inclusive set of practices via their connection to wider social expectation. Shifts in the political context have since challenged the strength of Members' capacity to engage with the new rules of the institution.
