Fresh talks fail to mend Parly truce

Deputy Presidednt Cyril Ramaphosa addrressing the media after the meeting with opposition parties' representative in Tynhuys, Parliament in Cape Town.18/11/2014 Linda Mthombeni Department of Communications

Deputy Presidednt Cyril Ramaphosa addrressing the media after the meeting with opposition parties' representative in Tynhuys, Parliament in Cape Town.18/11/2014 Linda Mthombeni Department of Communications

Published Nov 25, 2014

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Johannesburg - Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa’s attempts to salvage the aborted truce he brokered with opposition MPs last week has hit another snag.

Ramaphosa’s new round of talks with opposition parties on Monday, aimed at clarifying the circumstances that led to the failure of last week’s deal and restoring the pact, collapsed.

The venue of the talks - Emoyeni Conference Centre in Parktown, Joburg - was not devoid of the usual drama that had unfolded in Parliament.

A scuffle broke out between EFF leader Julius Malema and a security officer who wanted to search the party’s commander-in-chief. Malema complained that the guard was selective because he did not search Ramaphosa.

“He pushed me and he refused me entrance because I refused to be searched,” he said, addressing reporters.

“They don’t search this Cyril Ramaphosa, who kills people,” Malema said, referring to the deputy president’s intervention, as a former non-executive director at Lonmin, in the events at Marikana in which 44 people died in strike-related violence in 2012. For what nonsense, who do they call us to be searched by these thugs? I’m not going to subject myself to harassment from the ANC,” Malema said.

Monday’s talks were initiated by opposition parties wanting clarity on the statements by ANC chief whip Mathole Motshekga pronouncing that last week’s “Tuynhuys Pact” was off, UDM leader Bantu Holomisa said.

“We requested to meet the deputy president this week because we wanted to confirm what Motshekga claimed when he said the deal was off, and he agreed,” Holomisa said.

He attributed Monday’s failed talks to the ANC’s hardline stance against the DA, when the governing party castigated the official opposition for its decision to bring a motion of censure against President Jacob Zuma for his no-show in Parliament.

This was confirmed by Ramaphosa’s spokesman Ronnie Mamoepa. “We gave them an explanation that the deal is off. This was largely due to the DA’s motion of censure against the president, which departed from the spirit around which the deal was struck,” said Mamoepa.

Other sticking points that scuppered Monday’s talks, Holomisa said, were the ANC’s uncompromising stance against the EFF and its persistence about bringing the police into the House.

“We said to Cyril, if they want to debate the EFF report, it’s fine, we will participate. But we are going to call for an investigation on the presiding officers calling the police to Parliament.

Holomisa also attributed the failed talks to factions within the ANC that were hostile to Ramaphosa’s conciliatory attitude. “The final straw was when he (Ramaphosa) told us that his party is not in favour of the agreement we entered into last week, which they said was scuppered by the DA. They wanted to use the DA as a scapegoat… the factions of the ANC are top of it,” he said.

The DA said the talks “served no purpose” except to protect Zuma from appearing in Parliament to answer questions.

“This demand is of great national importance to South Africa, and the deputy president should have taken it seriously,” said DA parliamentary leader Mmusi Maimane.

“If the House is reconvened at any time before the end of this year, the DA stands firm that oral questions to President Zuma must be the first order of business. Until President Zuma accounts to Parliament, and Deputy President Ramaphosa stops protecting him, the fight for accountability is long from over.”

Motshekga laid the blame for the talks’ collapse on the DA, accusing the party of pursuing a “narrow self-serving argument”. “Essentially, the DA, which leads the rest of the opposition, closed space for any possible compromise or agreement that would have enabled parties to unite behind a common purpose,” Motshekga said.

“The rest of the smaller parties are… complicit in the collapse of the deal due to their failure to stand up against the DA’s obstructive conduct.”

Additional reporting by Sapa

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The Star

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