Deal or no deal, please answer our questions, says the DA

THE DA would never enter into a deal that jeopardised its mandate, the party’s leader Helen Zille vowed during a protest on the steps of Parliament yesterday.

“When (Deputy President) Cyril Ramaphosa says a deal was done – the DA would never, and has never, and will never, enter into a deal that prevents us from doing our job that the people elected us to do,” she told reporters.

Zille, together with DA parliamentary leader Mmusi Maimane and other DA MPs, staged a lunchtime protest in front of the House.

They danced and sang and held up blue posters, each one posing a parliamentary question that the DA says has gone unanswered by the ANC.

The deal referred to is what the Presidency has described as an “understanding” reached between political party leaders and Ramaphosa at a meeting in Tuynhuys on Tuesday, after months of tension in the House reached breaking point last week.

But this blew apart on Wednesday night, after the DA pushed ahead with a motion accusing President Jacob Zuma of dodging questions over his Nkandla homestead.

Zille said the “deal” had to do with adhering to the rules.

“The deal was simple: stick by the rules.

“Then President Zuma refused to come to Parliament, therefore breaking the rules. We never gave the ANC carte blanche to break the rules.

“We will not be co-opted into a strategy by the ANC to protect the president from Parliament. Because that is against our mandate,” she added. – Sapa