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DA wants Mbete to step down
15/01/2008 07:44 - (SA)
Michael Hamlyn
Cape Town - The Democratic Alliance is to ask the
speaker of Parliament, Baleka Mbete, to step down now that she has been appointed as chair of the ANC's parliamentary political committee.
Ian Davidson, the DA chief whip, said on Monday that the committee served as a liaison between Parliament and the executive, and made recommendations to ANC headquarters in Luthuli House about the deployment of committee chairs and
the parliamentary whippery.
"The chair of this committee is seen as a key position in implementing ANC president Jacob Zuma's agenda in Parliament, and as such raises the question as to whether she can be impartial in the exercise of her duties and functions," Davidson said.
He added that he would write to Mbete, who was elected chairperson of the ANC as whole at the Polokwane conference last month, to request her to reconsider her position as speaker of Parliament and ask her to step down.
"The DA believes that her position as chair of the political committee will exacerbate the tensions that exist between Parliament and the executive as well as between Parliament and Luthuli House, and lead to inevitable conflict of interest in her decision making which will not be to the benefit of
Parliament," Davidson said.
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