Mbete most choose - DA

2008-02-26 16:55

Cape Town - Baleka Mbete's two high-profile ANC roles are in conflict with her job as Speaker of Parliament and she has to choose between one or the other, the DA said on Tuesday.

Failing this, the party would resort to a private member's bill to prevent her from taking an executive role in the ANC, DA chief whip Ian Davidson told a news briefing.

Mbete's being both ANC chairperson and chair of the ANC's political committee were at odds with the Speaker's need to be independent and impartial, he said.

It had "incontestably weakened" Parliament's oversight role.

The chair of the political committee was expected to champion the ANC's political strategy in Parliament - a highly political and partisan role, he said.

Justifying Mbete's appointment as ANC chair, ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe previously said it was meant to create "synergy" between party headquarters Luthuli House and Parliament.

Davidson argued that Mbete would instead become a "key architect" of the ANC's political strategy in Parliament.

"The Speaker's appointment, as head of the ANC's political committee, is about neither creating "synergy" nor strengthening democratic participation in Parliament, but it is an orchestrated move to ensure that Luthuli House tightens its grip on Parliament," said Davidson.

Put ANC first

It was doing this by undermining Parliamentary processes and reducing Parliament to a rubber stamp for ANC ambitions.

Davidson said there had been several cases where Mbete had put the ANC first.

On the arms deal, Davidson said that in December 2005 she failed to hold President Thabo Mbeki to account when he failed to remember, when asked in Parliament, whether or not he had met French arms manufacturer Thompson CSF in 1998.

More recently Mbete "barred" a DA question on the same subject. This came after former ambassador Barbara Masekela's admission that she had arranged a meeting between Mbeki and Thompson CSF representatives.

While accompanying convicted fraudster and former ANC chief whip Tony Yengeni to Pollsmoor prison, she demonstrated her support for him.

The Star quoted her as saying: "Yengeni did not defraud Parliament."

She also continued to protect MPs involved in the so-called "Travelgate" travel voucher fraud scam.

Davidson said strict mechanisms were needed to guide the Speaker's relationship with other Members of Parliament to prevent actual or perceived partiality.

- SAPA