Motion calling for early elections to be debated next week

The DA’s motion calling for early elections as per Section 50(1) of the Constitution, will be debated in the House on Tuesday, 5 September. This was announced in the National Assembly Programme Committee this morning.
The DA called for early elections as provided for in the Constitution following the 8 August Motion of No Confidence in President Jacob Zuma which saw a record number of MPs, including those from the ANC, vote to remove a captured president.
The reality is that South Africa cannot afford another two years of ANC governance.
With over half of South Africans living in abject poverty, 9.3 million of our people without work and our economy showing no signs of being able to recover from the recession, we need a new beginning.
The drafters of our Constitution foresaw a need to include a provision to allow for early elections for this very purpose. The events of 8 August made it clear that our country desperately needs a new beginning.
The ANC can no longer be trusted to govern and it is clear that South Africans have had enough.
The DA will call on all MPs to support this motion to usher in new elections. Given the enormity of the challenges lying ahead, South Africa cannot afford to have that ANC in power any longer.

DA submits PAIA application to Mbete for report on SABC Inquiry false testimony

I will today submit an application in terms of the Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA) to gain access to a report from Parliament’s Legal Services Unit detailing any witnesses who gave contradictory or misleading evidence during the SABC Inquiry.
During today’s National Assembly Programme Committee, I asked when the report was going to be tabled. National Assembly Speaker, Baleka Mbete, replied that her Office had sought legal advice and that she would first be engaging with the implicated parties. It is unclear why she has chosen to do this, and under what authority, and how long this process will take. I asked, pointedly, if we could at least be given an assurance that report will not be sanitised or redacted.
The report was one of the key recommendations of the SABC Inquiry Report and Parliament’s Legal Services were tasked with “identify[ing] the persons who misled the inquiry or provided false information or false testimony with the aim of criminal charges being laid.” This report into false information or false testimony was completed by 5 June and a copy was handed to the Speaker’s Office, but is yet to be tabled in Parliament.
The Speaker is now obliged to table this report before the House, via the Announcements, Tablings and Committee Reports (ATC), as the report was a recommendation of an ad hoc committee and not a personal undertaking. It should also be referred to the Portfolio Committee on Communications where the ad hoc committee originated.
The Ad Hoc Committee into the SABC was a stellar example of how Parliament, through diligence and multi-party cooperation, held the Executive to account and addressed governance issues at an ailing state-owned entity.
It would be a massive disservice to everyone involved in the committee that those who misled the enquiry or provided false testimony, under oath, be allowed to escape accountability and censure.

DA lobbies multi-party support for Ad Hoc Committee on state capture

I have today distributed the DA’s draft resolution on the establishment of an Ad Hoc Committee on state capture, as per National Assembly Rule 253(1)(a), to all parties for consideration. A request for this matter to be placed on the Order Paper as a matter of urgency was forwarded to the Speaker’s Office on 29 May.
The motion will now be discussed in Chief Whips Forum with a view to having it scheduled at the next meeting of the National Assembly Programme Committee.
South Africans are punch-drunk by the seemingly endless revelations about state capture and the astonishing influence the Gupta family wields over President Jacob Zuma and members of his Executive.
I believe there is broad consensus that a thorough investigation into these allegations is long overdue and submit that Parliament is best placed to undertake it.
As detailed in our motion, Parliament is duty-bound by Section 55 of the Constitution to oversee the exercise of executive authority. As such, the various correspondence which show that there has been undue influence by persons not in the executive over the exercise of executive authority in South Africa must be laid bare and interrogated.
An Ad Hoc Committee is the perfect vehicle for looking into state capture as the committee can:

  • Summon any document to be served before it;
  • Summon any person to appear before it, under oath;
  • Receive petitions or submissions from interested persons; and
  • Conduct public hearings into any relevant matter pertaining.

This committee will be empowered to call President Zuma and the Guptas to give testimony, and should not hesitate to do so.
We call on all parties represented in Parliament to support the establishment of this Ad Hoc committee and to participate in the project of putting an end to state capture, once and for all. South Africans are looking to Parliament to tackle this crisis and we dare not fail them.