Motions a stumbling block
ARE MOTIONS without notices on their way out – even if just temporarily – in an effort to stop party politicking in the House?
Discussions in Wednesday’s chief whips forum could lead to a concrete proposal after concerns were raised over the past weeks’ escalating blocking of motions without notice – the parliamentary tool to pay condolences, recognise achievements in sport or science or note events countrywide. If such a motion is objected to, it is not recorded in the Hansard, or transcript of a sitting.
Over the past few weeks, politicking ratcheted up as the EFF objected to motions of fellow opposition parties – including the Freedom Front Plus’s condolence for poet, playwright and literary expert Professor TT Cloete and another wishing Muslims happy Eid.
In one bizarre incident recently, the ANC objected to an EFF motion congratulating Orlando Pirates for winning the Carling Black Label Cup. But when the DA wanted to congratulate the team’s coach for the victory, the EFF blocked the motion.
Until recently, the tussle over motions without notices has been between the ANC and EFF, with the parliamentary majority party frequently blocking such motions from the third-largest party. But in a sign of tension in opposition ranks, the EFF has used its objections against fellow opposition parties’ motions.
This comes amid the EFF getting the cold shoulder from other opposition parties since its “pay back the money” fracas during the mid-June presidential question slot, which meant not a single answer could be given.
The first sign of an opposition backlash against the EFF came when all the other parties adopted the new rules on evicting unruly MPs from the House to prevent disorder.
Now political parties are frustrated about the blocking of motions without notices. During last week’s programming committee, the IFP suggested an interim freeze on such motions slots.
“It’s really become a joke,” said IFP chief whip Narend Singh, adding that it did Parliament’s image no good. ANC chief whip Stone Sizani supported the suspension of motions without notice until all revised rules were finalised.
The National Freedom Party agreed, but DA chief whip John Steenhuisen cautioned that the rules should not be altered because of “the EFF’s childish blocking of motions”.
Speaker Baleka Mbete saw off an ANC push for a vote on the matter, and instead asked the chief whips to discuss it further this week.
It has really become a bad joke, IFP whip says
FROM Nkandla to the lack of domestic inquiries into the Fifa 2010 World Cup corruption claims, the country’s economic troubles and politicking in the SAPS top ranks, it’s set to be a tough week in Parliament.
Tomorrow, political sparks are sure to fly in the parliamentary debate of the report by the ad hoc Nkandla committee, which agreed with the police minister’s verdict that President Jacob Zuma did not have to repay anything of the R215 million taxpayer-funded security upgrades at his rural homestead.
Stating there had been no value for money, the committee report also noted “South Africans were misled about the opulence of the private residence of the president” and recommended “the executive ensure all necessary steps are undertaken to ensure that the safety of the head of state and his family is not compromised”.
That official report was adopted on the back of ANC numbers in the committee, in a vote that defeated the opposition’s view that the police minister’s report must be rejected because it was unconstitu- tional and irrational.
Tomorrow’s debate, and the widely expected adoption of the report as the ANC holds the majority in the National Assembly, might formally end Parliament’s role in the Nkandla debacle but will not end the saga itself.
The EFF has approached the Constitutional Court to be heard in its push for repayment, in line with the public protector’s findings.
Other political parties are expected to approach the courts too. Unlike the EFF, the other opposition parties participated in the ad hoc Nkandla committee to ensure they had exhausted all available avenues before turning to the courts.
Hours before tomorrow’s debate, the spotlight falls on SAPS top officials appearing before the police committee. But before MPs get down to how the SAPS is implementing the domestic violence regimen, the matter of provincial commissioners backing their embattled boss national commissioner General Riah Phiyega will be dealt with again.
Last week, top SAPS officers, and two national deputy commissioners, had to apologise in the wake of MPs’ criticism of them for stepping into politicking with their public statement supporting Phiyega, just after she had told the president why she should keep her job.
The Farlam Commission of Inquiry had recommended that she face an inquiry for misleading it. But a day after the unprecedented apology in Parliament, the top brass did not quite withdraw their controversial statement as instructed by MPs, but instead issued a statement as the board of commissioners reiterating the line rejected by MPs.
The initial statement was aimed at correcting misconceptions about disarray in the SAPS.
MPs expect to have the minutes of the meeting at which the provincial police commissioners’ backing of Phiyega was discussed in the presence of the national police commissioner. Why two weeks elapsed between the discussions at Magoebaskloof and the issuing of the controversial statement is just one of several outstanding questions.
The focus remains on policing on Wednesday, as the top brass brief MPs on Operation Fiela, or Sweep Clean, launched in the wake of the wave of violence against foreigners earlier this year.
The police committee is one of 27 meeting this week in Parliament, while National Council of Provinces committees hold oversight visits across the country.
Due to a pending legal appeal, the DA was unsuccessful in its motion for Zuma’s impeachment over the controversial departure of Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir, who attended an AU summit amid court hearings for his arrest on two International Criminal Court warrants for genocide and war crimes.
DA leader Mmusi Maimane is scheduled to lead the debate on “the growing economic crisis facing South Africa”. Since being elected party leader, Maimane has put the economy at the centre of his party’s platform, raising stubbornly high unemployment and sluggish economic growth repeatedly as the core of his parliamentary statements.
During Wednesday’s questions to ministers in the social cluster, Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula will have to answer why he had not instituted an official inquiry into the $10 million (R128.2m) bribery allegations linked to the 2010 Fifa World Cup local organising committee.
In late May, the US attorneygeneral announced its investigation and several Fifa officials were arrested, as were two former soccer executives and four sports marketing officials.
At the time, Mbalula claimed a US smear campaign and insisted the money paid to the Confederation of North, Central American and the Caribbean Football Association in 2008 was for development.
The government is on record that South Africa had obtained a clean audit report on the 2010 Fifa World Cup from a reputable firm.
Spotlight to fall on the police’s top brass