Ramaphosa calls special ANC caucus meeting for next week

Parliamentary committee meetings are due to start later than usual next Tuesday as ANC MPs have been called to a special caucus meeting.

This has been confirmed to TimesLIVE by Nonceba Mhlauli‚ ANC parliamentary caucus spokesperson‚ who indicated that the special caucus meeting was called by ANC president Cyril Ramaphosa.

Parties in parliament generally convened their respective caucus on Thursday mornings‚ but Ramaphosa has opted to address his on November 6 before taking oral questions in the National Assembly that afternoon.

"Next Tuesday's special caucus meeting is called for the President to address the ANC caucus. The meeting is scheduled for 11am‚ the morning before the President appears in the NA for a Q&A session‚" said Mhlauli.

"This address is part of the usual/routine political engagements ANC officials engage in with caucus‚ as a sub-structure of the ANC NEC‚ from time to time."

It's not clear what Ramaphosa is due to communicate to the ANC parliamentary caucus‚ but he would be speaking to them straight from a meeting of the party's highest decision making body‚ the national executive committee‚ which has been scheduled to gather this weekend.

Ramaphosa took ill the last time he was scheduled to take questions from MPs in the middle of October.

DA leader Mmusi Maimane would be asking Ramaphosa to explain exactly when he became aware of the looting of the VBS Mutual bank and what action he took.

UDM leader Bantu Holomisa and IFP MP Xolani Ngwezi‚ for their part‚ would be probing Ramaphosa on his strategies to tackle serious crimes such cash-in-transit heists‚ taxi-related violence and violent community protests.