'Time for Winnie to retire'
2003-03-13 13:11
Cape Town - It was time African National Congress MP Winnie Madikizela-Mandela retired from parliament as she was a "serial truant" who wasted taxpayers' money, said Democratic Alliance chief whip Douglas Gibson on Thursday.
"She appears once every few months for an hour or two, generally arriving late and leaving early," he said in reaction to reports that she had attended only four sittings of the National Assembly last year.
Madikizela-Mandela clearly found her duties as an MP too onerous, and should retire.
If she declined, the ANC should simply remove her from parliament, Gibson said.
"Mrs Madikizela-Mandela is being paid a salary by the taxpayers and she is not doing the work. This should be unacceptable to the ANC; it certainly is unacceptable to the DA and to many voters."
The ANC was talking about introducing a system of fines of up to R2 000 for MPs who persistently missed meetings, Gibson said.
ANC fines proposal 'not justifiable'
"The proposal is laughable in that someone like Mrs Mandela takes home R17 000 a month after tax and she could well afford to carry on being absent and merely pay a fine of R2 000."
The ANC proposal on fines was also not justifiable as these would be paid into the party's caucus funds, he said.
"This means that the taxpayer will be subsidising the ANC caucus instead of receiving value for money from MPs."
Gibson urged the ANC to find the courage to make it clear that neither Madikizela-Mandela, nor any other MP, could carry on drawing a salary while fooling around and failing to do the work for which an MP is paid.
A spokesman for Madikizela-Mandela was not immediately available for comment.
Meanwhile, Madikizela-Mandela has 10 days to provide parliament with a date when she will attend a National Assembly sitting to be publicly reprimanded by speaker Frene Ginwala.
- SAPA