EXTENSION OF THE AD HOC COMMITTEE DEADLINE

23 October 2014

The Office of the ANC Chief Whip welcomes the National Assembly's decision this afternoon to extend the deadline by which the Ad Hoc Committee on the Report of the President on the security upgrades at Nkandla should report to the House.

The House has agreed to extend the deadline to 14 November 2014. The extension of the deadline will afford the ad hoc committee sufficient time to qualitatively and diligently perform its task and table its report to the House. We commend the committee for the thoroughness, competence and diligence with which it continues to conduct its business despite persistent and irrational attempts to undermine its work.

The opportunistic motion by the DA today, which ostensibly sought to amend the motion to extend the deadline, is another desperate and futile attempt to attack the on-going work in the ad hoc committee.

After its voluntary walk-out in the middle of the committee discussions, the DA-led opposition announced that it will table a counter report in the House. Now they are proposing a counter motion as an attempt to use the House to dictate the discussions in the committee.

The House has appointed the committee to perform this task on its behalf, and therefore it may not micromanage the course of its business. The opposition's attention-seeking stunts clearly demonstrate that their walk-out strategy was ill-conceived.

It is not late for them to come back to the ad hoc committee and make a contribution instead of howling and entertaining us with their endless stunts from the outside.

Statement issued by the Office of the ANC Chief Whip, October 23 2014

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