ANC WILL MEET DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSION OF NAMES TO SERVE ON AD HOC COMMITTEE 

14 April 2014

The Office of the ANC Chief Whip dismisses with contempt the silly and desperate claims by the DA that the ANC in Parliament is delaying the start of the Ad hoc committee to consider the President's response to the Public Protector's Report on Nkandla security upgrades.

The rules of the National Assembly are clear that parties have 10 working days within which to recommend names to the Speaker for appointment to serve on the ad hoc committee. It goes without saying that we will meet that dateline, which is 23 [April] 2014.

What we cannot do though, is to act with haste and in the process undermine our thorough internal selection processes for capable, experienced and available MPs to serve on the committee merely because the DA says so. This process is governed by the rules of the Assembly, and we won't be party to the DA's desperate attempt to reduce it into some silly political game for narrow electioneering purposes. The only reason DA wants to rush everybody into submitting names on its own 'deadline', instead of the one provided for by Parliament in line with the Rules, is because it has completely pinned all its election hopes solely on Nkandla. The party has nothing to offer to South Africans, having traded its weak and empty election manifesto soon after it was launched for the 'Nkandla Manifesto'. 

The ad hoc committee is being established during parliamentary recess, which means putting together a team of seven MPs, who are currently involved in intense election campaign in all nine provinces, is not going to be an overnight exercise. Parties such as the DA only need one or two MPs for this committee, and their MPs run election campaign from their air-conditioned offices in Parliament through twitter and press releases. This is the reason it could take them only a day to forward the name(s) for this committee.

Statement issued by the Office of the ANC Chief Whip, April 14 2014

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