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The Speaker the elephant in the room, say opposition

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Baleka Mbete
Baleka Mbete

The appointment of the Speaker at Parliament is one of the controversial issues that is set to be taken up by the constitutional review committee.

This emerged following a two-hour closed door multi-party meeting yesterday that was convened by the Speaker Baleka Mbete to discuss the implications of the damning court finding that Parliament had acted inconsistently with the Constitution in its treatment of the Public Protector’s report into Nkandla.

Proposals by opposition parties – such as a disciplinary process against President Jacob Zuma and the establishment of an ad hoc committee to investigate whether he had misled the National Assembly – were under consideration.

Although the meeting was not conclusive with no timelines set, party leaders and chief whips were unanimous in agreeing that Parliament’s credibility had been dented.

As a starting point, the review committee and the rules committee were identified as the appropriate forums to determine whether reforms were needed to ensure that Parliament’s integrity was not undermined again.

DA chief whip John Steenhuisen said while there was broad consensus that measures needed to be taken to mend the damage, the “conflicting” role of the Speaker, who is also chairperson of the ANC, was a sticking point.

He said, for example, that the Speaker was locked in urgent meetings with the other top five ANC leaders to tackle the fallout over Zuma at a time that she needed to concentrate on addressing the impact the ruling had on Parliament’s credibility.

“She is the wrong person to lead much-needed reforms in Parliament,” he said.

However, ANC chief whip Jackson Mthembu said that the Speaker was elected via a constitutional process.

“There is nothing untoward about that. Any ideas to the contrary needed to come before the constitutional review committee,” he said.

This committee was the only suitable forum to debate whether a Speaker should retain a party position or should resign before being elected.

“There are so many models in the world. That is the point that we made in the meeting. Let us engage in the discussion in the review committee,” he said.

Mechanisms still needed to be put in place to consider issues such as the removal of a president or the process of taking disciplinary steps against a president, he said.

The overall tone of the meeting was positive, said Mthembu. “The spirit of the discussions was in a manner that makes ordinary South Africans regain their confidence in Parliament.”

Mbete told the media afterwards that the meeting was “constructive but not exhaustive”.

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