Democratic Alliance (DA) Chief Whip John Steenhuisen has rubbished claims by five ANC MPs that ANC Chief Whip Jackson Mthembu colluded with the DA to have a motion on State Capture debated in Parliament Tuesday night.
The claims were made at a briefing by the five MPs on Monday, covered by ANN7.
Steenhuisen says the claims are baseless and speak to the current internal battle within the ANC.
“Firstly I think it exposes the very deep divisions that exist in the ANC in the run up to their conference. Tuesday, in the House it was almost like a party that was divided, two different parties in the House. Those who are defending the captured and those who are close to state capture. But, I think it’s completely misplaced. This was a member’s motion slot. Each party gets on a rotational basis the ability to the floor of Parliament for debate. Last week we had an ANC Motion this week it was the DA’s turn and the ANC frankly had nothing to do with the motion that was on the order paper in my name.”
The ANC Chief Whip in Parliament, Jackson Mthembu has laid a complaint with the ANC Secretary General Gwede Mantashe to investigate the five MPs for their utterances.
ANC Caucus Spokesperson Nonceba Mhlauli dismissed the five ANC MPs claims that Mthembu colluded with the DA on the State Capture motion.
“Parliament has a rotational sequence of debates being scheduled in the house and yesterday was the DA’s debate. And the Chief Whip of the ANC absolutely no authority or no directive to tell the opposition what their motions of debate should be and vice versa. And any such insinuation is quite frankly dangerous for the health functioning of a multi-party parliament. The Chief Whip has written to the SG of the ANC and he has formally informed the SG laying a complaint and asking the SG to act on this particular matter.”
