Cape Town - It didn’t take long before Wednesday’s question time to ministers in the governance cluster erupted in barrages of points of order and challenges to presiding officers’ rulings.
One issue was that none of the ministers, except for Minister for Women in the Presidency Susan Shabangu, arrived for the Q&A session, sending their deputies instead. The other was united opposition dissatisfaction over the quality of responses given.
However, the line from presiding officers was whether you like the reply or not, the question has been answered.
Acting Public Service and Administration Minister Nathi Mthethwa tendered his apologies, but the EFF took exception to this. When the deputy minister of Co-operative Governance, Andries Nel, did not answer a question from EFF chief whip Floyd Shivambu, when there would be water in a particular North West municipality, tempers flared.
“We are taken for granted… They come here and toss around the bush. They are supposed to have information at their fingertips,” said EFF MP Mmabatho Mokause. But ANC deputy chief whip Doris Dlakude stepped in, saying the question had been answered. And deputy Speaker Lechesa Tsenoli ruled: “If ministers have indicated they can’t answer questions, we can’t push them.”
However, Nel, who found himself unable to answer other questions, promised he would “take the initiative to answer the question in writing” without the MP having to submit a parliamentary question through the usual channels.
Subsequently, Tsenoli was criticised from the benches for not allowing Nel to answer after the deputy minister had indicated he would. Later, Tsenoli was criticised for disallowing the fourth and final follow-up from the DA, after ruling the EFF out because their MP was not sitting in the allocated seat when pressing the button for a supplementary question. The DA got hot under the collar, saying that the ruling would be challenged after the sitting.
As UDM MP Mncedisi Filtane got ready to ask another follow-up questions, Tsenoli made way for house chairman Cedric Frolick as presiding officers regularly take turns to chair proceedings.
“Just as well there’s been a change of guard,” quipped Filtane.
Tempers rose again over DA MP Phumzile Van Damme’s question on whether there will be conscription for young people, which the opposition parliamentarian said was not answered.
“I’m trying to empower you (with information). Not just give a yes or no,” replied Shabangu before ANC chief whip Stone Sizani stepped in to tell the house the minister had answered by saying the process of making a decision was not yet over.
IFP MP Mkhuleko Hlengwa’s follow-up question on specific timelines to finalise the conscription decision was not answered.
Asked why the ANC wanted to return to an apartheid-era situation – conscription for white men was compulsory then – Shabangu dismissed this as a political statement, adding “young people can make choices…”.
Cape Argus