Speaker v Protector: Parly moves to act on Mkhwebane
Visibly irked Modise demands clarity on impeachment rules
● National Assembly speaker Thandi Modise has told justice committee chair Bulelani Magwanishe to fast-track the process to set up an inquiry into public protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane’s fitness to hold office.
Addressing the National Assembly’s programme committee, which determines priorities for the assembly and portfolio committees, Modise this week said parliament will “not be stopped” from going ahead with preparations for a probe into Mkhwebane’s fitness to hold office.
Modise couldn’t hide her irritation with the tone of a letter from Mkhwebane in which she accuses the speaker of violating the constitution by acceding to a DA-sponsored proposal to initiate the inquiry.
The justice committee has yet to act on the DA’s proposal.
In the letter Mkhwebane threatens to take Modise to court should parliament continue with an inquiry, saying there are no rules in place for her impeachment.
Modise said that a letter from DA chief whip John Steenhuisen had “awakened” parliament to the fact that there are no mechanisms in place to deal with all chapter 9 institutions.
Modise criticised the justice committee for moving “a bit slowly” in determining whether it could develop rules or not. She referred the matter to the committee in June.
She said she had told Magwanishe to either make a recommendation to the committee on how to proceed or take the matter to the rules committee so that it can adopt a mechanism to do so.
She told the meeting that parliament had expected a scenario similar to this week’s move by former deputy national director of public prosecutions Nomgcobo Jiba, who entered into an agreement with the institution to halt a parliamentary process regarding her fitness for office until her court challenge has been heard.
Instead, Mkhwebane wrote the letter, whose tone, Modise said, was “out of order”.
“If you write to us in a manner that says ‘parliament is stupid, parliament has no right to do this’, we need to insist that you are out of order because we know what we are doing,” said the speaker.
She said Jiba’s letter and one from Lawrence Mrwebi had made it easier to find a solution because their tone was “far better than the hectoring and instructive” tone of a letter such as that from the public protector.
“Where it is definitely within the powers of parliament to do certain things, we shall not agree to be stopped, and where, as in this case, where we think that there is a need to put mechanisms and processes in place, we shall do so,” she said.
“We shall not agree to be stopped when we know that the process will be open … and we will not take sides. If we take anybody’s side, it will be the side of the people because we can’t take our own side.”
Now the rules committee will have to start a process to finalise clear rules to be followed in instituting an inquiry into a public protector’s fitness for office.
Cedric Frolick, the National Assembly chair responsible for committees, said the rules committee will “urgently pay attention” to the matter.
Steenhuisen, who has consistently called for parliament to remove Mkhwebane from office, welcomed Modise’s comments as an important and salutary development.
If you write to us in a manner that says ‘parliament is stupid’ … we need to insist that you are out of order