The National Assembly’s Chairperson of Committee Chairs, Cedick Frolick, says a new Communications Committee Chairperson is expected to be elected towards the end of this month. This comes after Hope Papo was redeployed to the office of the Deputy President last month.
“The Honourable Hope Papo has been appointed as parliamentary counsellor to the Deputy President and in terms of our rules (National Assembly Rules) he cannot continue to be the Chairperson of the Communications Committee. I understand that processes are underway for the ANC to deploy another Member of Parliament to Chair the Communications Committee. This should be done when Parliament reconvenes for the committee week towards the end of August,” says Frolick.
The Congress of the People (COPE) Member of Parliament and Member of Parliament’s Communications Committee Willy Madisha says he is disappointed that Papo is no longer committee chairperson.
Madisha says COPE wants a competent person to replace Papo.
“I have been in that committee for almost a decade and I know the problems and challenges which are there in so far as the committee is concerned. I was happy that Hope Papo was there because he has some experience as a former spokesperson of his party and at the moment he was doing well. I was quite happy. There are many challenges, not only (with) SABC but a whole lot of other sections of the communications (industry). Now the person that we need is the person that will be able to handle those, and at the moment I don’t know at all who the ANC will bring.”
