NATIONAL Assembly Speaker Novisiwe Mapisa-Nqakula said on Thursday that she will request a meeting with the Parliamentary Chief Whips Forum to discuss a way forward on President Cyril Ramaphosa completing outstanding oral questions.
The Speaker was addressing the Programme Committee in Parliament on Thursday.
Mapisa-Nqakula told the Chief Whips that she will convene a meeting with ANC chief whip in the National Assembly, Pemmy Majodina, and leader of government business Deputy president, David Mabuza, in an attempt to hold Ramaphosa accountable.
She said she will also write a letter to the Office of the President to request Ramaphosa to return to the National Assembly to answer questions about Phala Phala.
“I am going to write a letter to the president to request date so that we can finish and complete this business,” said Mapisa-Nqakula.
“As you are aware that I cannot make a determination on the availability of the president. I am not the one who runs his diary, so I will just write to the president and expect him to respond and advise us on a date of his availability.”
Several parties want Ramaphosa to return to Parliament as early as next week to answer the questions about Phala Phala matter while the ANC said the questions could be accomodated at the next scheduled session on September 29.
Earlier this week, opposition parties caused a ruckus in Parliament after Ramaphosa allegedly evaded questions about the Phala Phala matter.
DA leader, John Steenhuisen, said: “President Cyril Ramaphosa’s outright refusal to answer a question around the Phala Phala debacle posed to him … in the National Assembly, is indistinguishable from the horror South Africans witnessed in the Zuma era where both the Presidency and the Speaker broke parliament to shield a sitting president from accountability.”
“President Ramaphosa has often spoken about the nine wasted years under former president Jacob Zuma, but today’s sitting has only proven that instead of bringing those nine wasted years to an end, Ramaphosa’s term of office will only seek to lengthen them. Once again, an ANC president is dodging accountability at the expense of our oversight institutions, and ultimately, at the expense of South African democracy itself.”
EFF Deputy President, Floyd Shivambu, said: “Ramaphosa has not yet responded to the questions and we have got the reasonable suspicion that, he has not responded to these questions because the money was generated illegally.”
“The Parliamentary regulations and rules of the Constitution obliges all members of executive, including the President to answer questions.”
Three months ago, former spy boss Arthur Fraser opened a criminal complaint against Ramaphosa, accusing him of kidnapping, bribery, money laundering, and concealing a crime following the theft of a large amount of foreign currency from his private property two years ago.
Meanwhile, the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) has given Ramaphosa until next week to provide information on the foreign currency stolen at his PhalaPhala farm so that it can properly investigate the matter.
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