Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa's meeting with leaders of parliamentary political parties, Emoyeni, Johannesburg, 24 November 2014‏

24 November 2014

Johannesburg - Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa in his capacity as Leader of Government Business, today, Monday 24 November 2014 met with leaders of political parties represented in parliament at Emoyeni Estate, Johannesburg. The meeting was convened at the request of the parliamentary political parties.

The meeting took place against the background of efforts to create open lines of communication between the executive and political parties as well as the recent agreement reached in Cape Town with political parties.

The meeting reviewed developments since the last meeting held in Cape Town including the determination by the majority party that the agreement reached last week could not proceed.

This was occasioned by the decision by the Democratic Alliance to table a motion of censure against the President in Parliament last week.

In this regard Deputy President Ramaphosa at the end of the meeting said "We gave them an explanation that the deal is off. This was largely due to the DA's motion of censure against the President which departed from the spirit around which the deal was struck.

"We also said we must now allow processes in parliament to unfold. Parliament has a number of structures and committees and the methods of dealing with matters that unfold in parliament. That should be allowed to proceed and we parted with that" continued Deputy President Ramaphosa

"We further said as a leader of Government Business we remain open to continue to meet with leaders of political parties in the future to discuss matters of interest. What is important for us is that we should continue putting our heads together when it comes to matters such as how we can maintain a very good decorum in parliament and how the dignity of parliament can be upheld and how we can make sure that all political parties comply and obey the rules of parliament and how we can create a climate that is conducive for the executive to come and appear before parliament and be accountable and answer questions'' concluded Deputy President Ramaphosa.

Statement issued by Ronnie Mamoepa, The Presidency, November 24 2014

Click here to sign up to receive our free daily headline email newsletter