Mashatile rejects criticism over government’s coalitions draft bill

Deputy president Paul Mashatile has poured cold water on concerns that the already drafted government’s bill on coalitions renders the national dialogue on coalitions futile.

This after UDM leader Bantu Holomisa on Friday made a startling revelation that the government had already drafted a bill long before the government, led by Mashatile, convened political parties to develop a framework to stabilise coalitions.

Holomisa raised his ire with deputy Cogta minister Parks Tau, saying he had been made aware that there was already a bill on coalitions.

Holomisa, along with many other party leaders, were attending a national dialogue on coalitions in Cape Town, which heard proposals on how coalition governments should be constituted ahead of next year's election.

The political parties are meant to agree on a specific framework that will guide coalitions.

Mashatile however said the government draft bill on coalitions did not affect the dialogue as the bill had not been processed.

“The draft bill does not affect this process, you will recall that the DA also have their own draft bills to say what need to be amended to ensure that coalitions work better,” said Mashatile.

Tau had revealed that his department had a draft bill on coalitions and had intended on pushing it through but that process was paused to allow Mashatile’s dialogue to proceed.

“Cogta did report not only in this session but already when I was answering questions in parliament I did say the minister of Cogta indicated that they were drafting a bill but once I announced that we need to have a dialogue they then put that on hold, but let me not say put that on hold, but they slowed down to allow this process,” said Mashatile.

In fact, Mashatile argued, the ire raised by parties was unfair as the DA has its own bills on the same matter.

“Same as the DA, I said to them the issues that you raise in your bill bring them here because once we have a framework that is agreed to by everybody then that lays the basis for legislation,” said Mashatile.

“So the minister will go back, look at her own bill, take into account this framework and I’m hoping all the other parties will do the same.”

His dialogue, Mashatile said, would go a long way in considering all proposals on the table and eventually reach a compromise on what framework to put in place.

“So in a sense you can say this process is complementary to processes that were started before but more enriching because it brings consensus of parties,” said Mashatile.

“We have realised that in these two days that there may be two or three issues where there were some disagreements but most of the issues there’s a lot of consensus and parties approach this in that spirit, that where we differ let’s engage more but at the end we want to ensure that there is broader or sufficient consensus on the issues that will take us forward.”