The Democratic Alliance (DA) wants the National Assembly to take action against Communications Minister Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams for ignoring Parliament.
The DA says Ndabeni-Abrahams failed to implement a Parliamentary recommendation on the number of councillors that have to serve on the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA). This comes after Ndabeni-Abrahams’ issued a notice in the government gazette over the weekend, stating that she will appoint five ICASA councillors.
DA member of Parliament’s Communications Committee Phumzile van Damme says her party will formally write to National Assembly Speaker Thandi Modise about the Minister’s conduct.
“The DA will be requesting that the Minister of Communications Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams be subjected to Parliamentary disciplinary action. This follows her latest decision to ignore Parliament regarding the appointment of ICASA councillors. Last month, she sought to reject a report adopted by the National Assembly saying she must appoint six councillors to the ICASA Council. She has again decided to ignore Parliament by appointing only five. While this may seem like a minor infection, it not in the sense, that the Minister brazenly decided to ignore Parliament,- despite a very clear instruction related to the appointments to ICASA,” says Van Damme.
Our dear Stella is back at it again. She has basically given Parliament a middle finger. Not once. Twice. She has deliberately ignored two decisions of Parliament. Breathtaking. We’re referring her for disciplinary action in Parly. Will the Speaker move against her? Let’s see. https://t.co/tlWIpMy7LB
— Phumzile Van Damme (@zilevandamme) August 24, 2020
Last week, the official opposition called for the Minister’s sacking, saying it has found further evidence for why it thinks Ndabeni-Abrahams should be fired.
The party says it is in possession of a copy of the letter written by lawyers on behalf of Post Office Chairperson, Tshikane Makhubele, to Ndabeni-Abrahams – questioning the legality of her decisions to remove her as SAPO Chairperson and her attempts to overturn decisions taken by the board.
