Buthelezi must bite the bullet
2003-09-09 14:12
Cape Town - Home Affairs Minister Mangosuthu Buthelezi must face up to his responsibilities and stop blaming "somebody else" for his department's problems, the New National Party said on Tuesday.
"There is no doubt that the department of home affairs is in a shambles and the responsibility stops right at the minister's door," NNP media director Carol Johnson and home affairs spokesman Richard Pillay said in a joint statement.
"The people of South Africa are becoming increasingly impatient with this department's inability to perform its core functions and the minister always blaming somebody else for his department's problems."
The NNP was, along with National Assembly's home affairs committee chairperson Patrick Chauke of the ANC, outraged that there was such a huge delay before the draft Electoral Amendment Bill was tabled in parliament.
The bill was only submitted after the committee "became firm about it", and after the deadline for the bill's submission had been missed, they said.
"We must remember that if a constitutional challenge of any sort is lodged when the bill is passed, it would have a huge potential to delay or even completely derail next year's general elections."
The delay with the bill, and the about 40 000 identity documents which have not been distributed in Gauteng alone, did not bode well for the upcoming elections.
"The NNP believes that the election should be the minister's biggest priority right now.
"The chaos in the department of home affairs has been ongoing since 1994. The minister should stop blaming everybody else for his failures, get his act together and start delivering," they said.
The bill is required for running the election, and special measures will have to be taken if the legislation is to be on the statute books in time for the poll.
During a media briefing at parliament on Monday, Buthelezi accused his detractors of attempting to use the delay in passing the bill to paint him as a "bumbling fool".
He blamed the delay on the process to investigate a new electoral system for South Africa.
The task team that carried out the new electoral system study had been delayed for one year.
Cabinet had also decided to adopt the proposals of the minority report produced by the task team.
These delays could not be laid at his door.
"People are baying for the blood of Mangosuthu Buthelezi to show how he is a bumbling fool. I am not a nigger, with apologies to the black people here, I am not a nigger in the woodpile," he said.
- SAPA