North West Speaker denies stifling debate

Published Apr 28, 2016

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Rustenburg – The Speaker of the North West provincial legislature, Sussana Dantjie, on Thursday denied that she was stifling debate in the legislature.

This after the Democratic Alliance (DA) and the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) accused her of denying them the right to participate in the proceedings, and staged a walk-out on Tuesday.

“The standing rules of the legislature states clearly that the chief whip of the house is responsible for arranging the legislature business in the Order Paper subject to the rules and the directives of the programming committee, and political consultation among parties in the legislature,” she said.

The DA and EFF charged that they were denied the right to participate in the proceedings, after the chief whip of the ANC, Hofman Galeng, removed all motions and member statements from the order paper the evening before the sitting.

EFF provincial spokesperson Thabo Sehloho said when DA chief whip Jacqueline Theologo asked the Speaker to intervene in terms of Rule 114 of the North West Provincial Legislature standing rules after the removal of motions and statements, the Speaker responded that the house agreed with the ANC chief whip’s advice and that statements would be allowed only after the local government elections of August 3.

“According to Rule 46(3) of the house rules, parties are allowed to rise and extend condolences and congratulations and/or to raise pertinent matters or issues in a member statement,” Sehloho said.

“This indicates that the ANC in North West Provincial Legislature suppresses debates of national importance for the next coming months and the views of our constituencies will not be addressed in the house where they are supposed to be raised and be debated.”

The sitting on Tuesday was scheduled for various departmental budget votes.

Dantjie said the DA and EFF had failed to report their disagreements to the Speaker before the sitting.

“However, when the DA raised the matter in the house, the Speaker made a ruling that party whips should meet and resolve the matters in disagreement and report back to her. Unfortunately the two parties chose to walk out of the house in a rush to grandstand and reported the distorted facts to the public.”

She said if there were any disagreements between the parties about any matter that should or should not be on the order paper, that should have been brought to the attention of the Speaker before the house sitting, not during the sitting as the DA did.

“The Rules book state clearly what should be done and they know it. It is unacceptable for them to come and bring the legislature’s name and my name into disrepute whereas they know the processes to follow,” she said.

She said following her ruling, party whips met on Tuesday afternoon and they were yet to report back to her.

African News Agency

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