As political parties are already high in the election mode, some of the National Assembly’s programmes will be scaled down.
The Multi Party Chief Whips forum has agreed not to place notices of motions and members statements on the National Assembly’s agenda for the next three Thursday House sittings. This could allow MPs to leave earlier on Thursdays to be in their constituencies to campaign for elections.
ANC Chief Whip Jackson Mthembu brought this proposal to the National Assembly’s Programme Committee meeting on Thursday morning.
“On Thursdays moving forward, we will not have the item notices of motions and members statements for very good reasons; so that we are able to leave Parliament to our various locations to deal with what is coming on the 8th of May. So, we really appreciate this agreement that we have reached with all members – so we will still have statements by members and notices of motions on Tuesdays.”
Other Chief Whips of Political Parties agree. IFP Chief Whip Narend Singh says this will not interfere with the work parliament is required to do.
“And that’s not going to be a train smash because we have go three Thursdays. But in that place, there would be a lot of other legislation that we’ll have to deal with, so it’s not that we are removing because we want to leave early, but there is a lot of legislation work that has to be concluded.”
UDM Chief Whip Nqabayomzi Kwankwa shares the same sentiment.
“We had to be realistic at the same time and consider all the political dynamics and the hectic nature of political programme in the run up to the elections because, ideally, what political parties would want going to elections is to ensure that MPs are able to spend as much time as they possibly can in their constituencies. But not only that, but to ensure that they leave on time on Thursdays so that they can be able to do constituency work properly.”
Mthembu has also given the assurance that all MPs and the executive are present to account and to answer questions during the scheduled house sittings that will take place, especially on Tuesdays.
