Seat allocation was fair, says DA

THE DA is adamant it fairly allocated guest seats to various parties for the opening of the provincial legislature after the ANC argued it was assigned too few.

In the weeks leading up to yesterday’s official opening of the Western Cape’s provincial parliament, ANC chief whip Pierre Uys and legislature speaker Sharna Fernandez exchanged heated words in a series of letters about the seating matter.

The row centred on the number of the seats the ANC were allocated; the DA assigned the party 32 guest invitations saying each member was allowed to invite two guests.

But ANC leaders said they had done their own calculations and, based on a “proportional representation model”, the party should have been allocated 48 guest seats. In addition, each member should have been allowed to invite three guests.

The ANC also argued the seating allocation did not just affect the opening of the legislature, but all future sittings.

This week the legislature’s spokesman Matthys Odendal told Weekend Argus the seating arrangement was standard.

“The allocation of two guests per ordinary member and minister is an arrangement that has existed for the past four years,” he said, adding that the arrangement would, therefore, not have suddenly been changed “to suit the ANC”.

” If the premier, her government or any other member wants to lay claim to more seats for their private allocation, this should be negotiated with their own political party and their allocation,” he said.

Odendal said Zille was allowed more guests than others.

“The premier, as head of government and the person delivering the address, is afforded a allocation of 20 guests,” he said.

caryn.dolley@inl.co.za