Johannesburg - From a motion of no confidence in President Jacob Zuma to questions on the cellphone-signal jamming at last month’s State of the Nation Address and a new Electoral Commission (IEC) boss, Parliament is to tackle potentially explosive issues this week.
On Tuesday, the National Assembly is set to adopt the home affairs committee recommendation of Vuma Mashinini to fill the vacancy after Pansy Tlakula’s resignation following controversy over procurement irregularities and conflicts of interest in the acquisition of new head offices.
Mashinini, who most recently served as a presidential special adviser on infrastructure but also has longstanding IEC experience, was recommended for the post despite opposition parties voicing their concerns.
The ANC carries the numbers in the National Assembly to carry the recommendation, needed before the president makes the final appointment.
Tuesday will also see an 85-minute debate on AgangSA’s motion of no confidence in Zuma.
Parliament has confirmed it would go ahead after the Western Cape High Court dismissed the party’s application for National Assembly Speaker Baleka Mbete to recuse herself because of bias.
It is unlikely the motion will be carried as the ANC holds 249 of the National Assembly’s 400 seats. Depending on who speaks on both sides of the House, the ANC may use the debate in support of Zuma.
On Thursday, the president opens the House of Traditional Leaders with a ceremony at Parliament, according to his official engagements diary.
However, controversy over next week’s National Assembly question session for Zuma is set to continue simmering at Parliament.
The Presidency last week said all questions from August were answered, closing the door on any renewed queries to pay back the money of the Nkandla security upgrades.
On August 21, the EFF’s “Pay back the money” fracas led to the abandoning of the presidential question slot halfway through. The repayment arises from the public protector’s finding that the president had personally benefited and should reimburse at least some of the money.
March 11 will be the first time since the fracas that Zuma returns to the House to answer questions in person.
But opposition heckles were raised because, in keeping with rule 111, the presidential question session was believed to start off where the August one left off.
Instead, it appears the Presidency is relying on other parliamentary rules that allow unanswered questions to be answered in writing - and the Presidency, again, publicly released the prepared replies for all six questions of that day.
It will also be Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa’s turn to answer on the cellphone signal jamming at last month’s SONA.
In the subsequent questions to peace and security cluster ministers, State Security Minister David Mahlobo must answer the same question, as well as the state security agents’ role on that day.
After the signal was restored - the jamming was officially blamed on “human error” - security operatives dressed in white shirts and black trousers removed all EFF parliamentarians after three of its MPs rose on points of order and privilege just after Zuma started delivering his SONA.
None of this will be raised at next week’s presidential question time slot, according to Parliament’s question paper.
However, the DA’s parliamentary leader Mmusi Maimane will not let rule 111 lie and will ask Zuma why he was not complying with the rule.
The EFF may yet again ask about the Nkandla repayments, but its official question to Zuma will be about the various criminal justice controversies, including the inquiry into the fitness for office of the prosecution boss and the suspension of the Hawks head.
EFF leader Julius Malema also wants Zuma to respond to “perceptions that at the centre of all the problems experienced by the criminal justice institutions is the desire to protect Zuma from accounting for the charges that were controversially dropped by the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA)”, according to the parliamentary question paper.
This refers to the April 2009 decision to stop the prosecution of Zuma for more than 700 criminal charges because, then acting NPA boss Mokotedi Mpshe said the prosecution had been politically influenced.
On this week’s parliamentary committee front, the public service and administration committee will be briefed on the need to replace the government’s ageing payroll system, Persal, and the South African Chamber of Commerce and Industry will be briefing the public enterprises committee on state-owned entities.
The justice committee is holding public hearings on the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences and Related Matters) Amendment Bill.
The draft law, among others, seeks to decriminalise consensual sex among teenagers, although non-consensual sex between children and statutory rape, or sex between an adult and a minor, remains unlawful.
Political Bureau