DA calls again for National Assembly speaker Baleka Mbete to step down

The DA has reiterated its call for Baleka Mbete to step down as speaker of the National Assembly.

Mbete has often clashed with opposition MPs‚ and some MPs say she is unfit for the position. On her watch‚ house sittings have often degenerated into chaos.

In 2014‚ DA leader Mmusi Maimane wrote to the leader of government business‚ Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa‚ asking him to support a motion of no confidence in Mbete and that Parliament elect a new speaker. But efforts to remove Mbete have so far failed.

Presenting the DA’s parliamentary review during a news conference in Parliament on Monday‚ DA chief whip John Steenhuisen said Mbete had constantly shown she "represents the interest of Luthuli house".

"[She] has failed on numerous occasions to uphold her constitutional responsibilities as the speaker by showing extreme bias when presiding on the house. She defends and protects President (Jacob) Zuma at every opportunity.

"She takes ANC points of order while ignoring those from the opposition‚ and she has made some atrocious rulings in the house recently. The DA maintains that her position as chairperson of the national executive committee of the ANC makes her unfit for the position of speaker‚" he said.

Steenhuisen said that despite the parliamentary year being shortened‚ due largely to municipal elections‚ figures showed that the DA had performed "exceptionally well in holding the executive to account".

"The DA asked 81% of all written and oral questions in 2016; this compared to a pitiful 0.5% by the ANC‚ 7‚5% by the EFF and 11% by all other opposition parties combined‚" said Steenhuisen.

He said this review also showed that the executive was not taking its constitutional duty to account seriously.

"For instance‚ the Department of Higher Education‚ despite being in the grips of a massive student funding crisis‚ failed to answer 57% [as of Monday 5 December] of the written questions posed to them this year‚" said Steenhuisen.

The DA’s request for the public protector to investigate state capture meant South Africans finally knew some of the depths of the "mafia-like control that President Zuma and his Gupta cronies have over the country"‚ said Steenhuisen.

"Finally‚ the DA has done everything in our capacity to fight against the capture of the NPA and the SABC – and will continue to do so when the SABC enquiry continues in Parliament this week." Parliament’s presiding officers‚ including Mbete‚ are due brief reporters on Wednesday on parliamentary highlights of 2016‚ and the year’s successes and challenges.

In a statement at the weekend responding to criticism directed at Mbete‚ Parliament said that the disruptions in the National Assembly were not Mbete’s fault.

"The speaker‚ although an elected politician‚ is not responsible for political decision-making – she is‚ instead‚ the custodian and arbiter of the rules and procedures governing the house…

"The ability of the National Assembly to process matters before it depends on the participation and cooperation of political parties. If political parties decide to walk out of proceedings in order for the Assembly not to be quorate‚ it can never be held against the speaker.

"Similarly‚ if political parties decide to disrupt proceedings for whatever reason that again cannot be held against the speaker. It is not the responsibility of the speaker to enforce party discipline or muster quorums‚ but rather the chief whips and whips of parties‚" Parliament said.

— TMG Digital/BusinessLive