Cape Town - Speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula has assured MPs that Parliament will have a permanent Secretary by the beginning of April.
Baby Tyawa has been acting Secretary to Parliament for the last three years, since Gengezi Mgidlana was fired in 2019.
She added that a new head of security and chief financial office will also be appointed.
Parliament has not had a head of security for the last five years since Zelda Holtzman left.
When a fire broke out in January, Parliament was thus without a permanent head of security.
Mapisa-Nqakula told the joint standing committee on the financial management of Parliament that they were hard at work to fill these three senior positions.
Former Speaker Thandi Modise told the programming committee meeting last June they were close to finalising the appointment of the secretary to parliament.
But during the meeting of the joint standing committee on the financial management of parliament on Friday, Mapisa-Nqakula said they could have a new secretary to parliament by April 1.
She said they were going to meet with the panel that conducted interviews on the candidates for the top job and that part of the discussion was around the salary package.
“I can assure you that we are hard at work to make sure that possibly by the 1st of April we may have a secretary to Parliament. Following that honourable members we agreed with the chairperson (of the National Council of Provinces) that it may be helpful to allow the incoming secretary to parliament to be given an opportunity to be part of the processes of appointing the CFO and head of security, not for any other reason but to allow the person to come in, look at the structure, look at what is there, be part of processes already underway,” said Mapisa-Nqakula.
The speaker said she understood the urgency and the need to appoint a permanent head of security.
“I am aware of the urgency of the matter, the fire broke out, everybody is in a panic because part of the problem may be indeed due to the fact that we do not have a person who is responsible for security, a head of security. This we have not had for the past five years. But soon we will have a head of security,” she said.
Political Bureau