DA: ANC ignorant of parliament rules
2013-01-23 19:45
Cape Town - DA Chief Whip Watty Watson shed more light on
Wednesday on his complaint that questions to President Jacob Zuma have yet to
be scheduled in the National Assembly's draft parliamentary programme.
"In his over-the-top response to the DA’s legitimate
concern about the non-scheduling of questions to President Zuma, the ANC’s
chief whip [Mathole Motshekga] revealed his own ignorance of parliamentary
rules," Watson said.
"I am well aware of the fact that the National
Assembly’s draft weekly programme is adopted each week by the National Assembly
programming committee, hence my stated intent to raise the matter at its next
meeting."
However, the concern remained as to why "questions
to the president" were not already given at least one provisional slot on
the draft programme for the first term.
National Assembly rule 111 states that questions to the
president have to be scheduled for a question day at least once a term.
"If no such slot is catered for in the draft
schedule in accordance with the rules, the DA has an obligation to point this
out."
This was not the first time the president had not
fulfilled his duty to appear before Parliament in a term.
In 2011, he managed to avoid answering questions for six
months, Watson said.
"The DA has a constitutional obligation to monitor
President Zuma’s accountability to Parliament and raise its concerns. We cannot
accept a parliamentary schedule that favours ceremonial events over the real
business of scrutinising and overseeing the work of government."
On Tuesday, Motshekga took aim at Watson for his
"legendary ignorance of parliamentary processes and procedures".
Motshekga said the draft parliamentary programme would
become official only once adopted by the programming committee, following its
first meeting of the year.
"Until such time, Mr Watson will do well to desist
from making a spectacle of himself by publicly fretting over things without
first establishing facts," said Motshekga.
Parliamentary rules being abused
In a statement on Sunday, Watson claimed parliamentary
rules were being abused to protect the president from being held accountable.
Also on Tuesday, Parliament gave the assurance that Zuma
would indeed be called to answer questions in the Assembly.
"It is regrettable that a draft programme, an
internal working document of the National Assembly, issued for consideration by
the NA [National Assembly] programme committee, was misconstrued [by Watson] as
the final programme," it said.
The programme was subject to changes and would be
finalised only following a meeting of the multi-party programming committee.
"There is no reason to assume that the draft
programme is the final programme for the first quarter of 2013," it said.
"Nor is there any reason to presume that because
dates have not yet been fixed for when the president and deputy president will
answer questions in the NA and NCOP [National Council of Provinces], that these
occasions for oversight will not be available."
- SAPA
