Programming Committee cancelled to protect President Zuma

14 April 2016

Yesterday afternoon I received notification that today’s National Assembly Programming Committee (NAPC) meeting had been cancelled.

We are now two weeks into Parliament’s second term and the National Assembly still does not have dates for oral question sessions for the President, Deputy President nor Ministers.

Rule 111(1)(a) requires the President to appear before the House at least once every term to answer questions from Members of Parliament, and 110 (1) requires the Deputy President to do so every second week.

The National Council of Provinces has similar rules, however as of yesterday’s NCOP Programming Committee meeting, the Council’s only scheduled oral question session for this term, Social Services, has been postponed indefinitely.

One can only assume that these cancellations and postponements are a concerted effort by Parliament’s Presiding Officers to protect the Presidency and Cabinet from any further embarrassment following the recent scathing Constitutional Court judgment on the Nkandla matter against the President and certain Members of his Cabinet. 

Further, there has been a distinct drop in the amount of replies to written questions to Ministers on service delivery matters ahead of this year’s local government elections; oral question sessions, which we are now being deprived of, would have been the opposition’s last opportunity to get definitive answers on these matters - Many of which we are sure are a source of great embarrassment for the ANC government and likely to have a negative effect on their election campaign efforts.

The cancellation of today’s NAPC has deprived the rest of the opposition an opportunity to raise our concerns regarding the Presidency and Cabinet’s failure to meet their parliamentary obligations as well as confirm whether the NAPC Chair, Baleka Mbete, has made any effort to hold them accountable as she is duty bound to. 

I will write to the NAPC Chair and request that she prioritise these dates and provide Parliament with proposals in the next circulated programme.

Issued by John Steenhuisen, DA Chief Whip, 14 April 2016