Solly Malatsi, DA minister of communications & digital technology, has accused speaker Thoko Didiza of violating the parliamentary rules she is supposed to uphold by failing to withdraw the SABC Bill.
Malatsi told the Sunday Times on Friday it was “astounding” that more than a month after he formally told her of his decision to withdraw the contentious legislation, Didiza was yet to gazette the decision.
Didiza is obliged to do so in terms of the rules of the National Assembly.
“The fundamental thing here is that that the speaker is the custodian of the National Assembly rules. If the minister writes to the Speaker to say withdraw this bill… there is no other option for the Speaker to do any other thing,” said Malatsi.
“She is trying to seek some political intervention here by saying ‘engage the portfolio committee’. I went and engaged the portfolio committee and remained steadfast in my position and the portfolio committee accepted that.
“And then we wrote back to the Speaker to say the view remains the same. And it’s very clear that there is stalling from the Speaker’s office to withdraw the bill, which is extraordinary because that would be in violation of the very same rules she’s supposed to uphold, it would be unprecedented,” Malatsi said.
It’s very clear that there is stalling from the Speaker’s office to withdraw the bill, which is extraordinary because that would be in violation of the very same rules she’s supposed to uphold
Didiza’s spokesperson Reggie Ngcobo said: “The Speaker will not respond to the minister through the media. As protocol between the executive and parliament, the Speaker engages the executive through the leader of government business.”
This is the latest twist in a saga that began when Malatsi shocked many in the ANC by withdrawing the SABC Bill early last month, while it was being processed by parliament.
The move raised objections from both his deputy minister, Mondli Gungubele, and ANC MP Khusela Diko, the chair of parliament’s communications committee, which was processing the bill.
Deputy President Paul Mashatile reacted by writing to Didiza this month to say the cabinet had passed a resolution stripping ministers of the prerogative to unilaterally withdraw bills from parliament.
But Malatsi has rejected this, saying the cabinet resolution and Mashatile’s letter to Didiza could not be applied retrospectively.
“This notion that withdrawal of bills must come to cabinet… No-one can stipulate in law or the constitution to say this is the clause that says this must happen.
“This is a convention simply because South Africa, since our democracy in 1994, has been under one party in government and party practices get duplicated into government to say it’s convention, whereas it’s a gentleman’s agreement.
“Even if that was the case, the deputy president only communicated after I communicated with the Speaker so you can’t retrospectively enforce things simply because you were overtaken by events.
“Now you realise ‘Oh we did not have a provision for this, we are now in the GNU, let us insert this thing.’ It just seems like trying to curtail powers that ministers have but also bullying the legislature to succumb to pressure.”
Malatsi last month said he wanted the bill withdrawn because it did not address the funding model of the cash-strapped public broadcaster.
He also argued that it gave the communications minister too many powers over the appointment of the SABC board.
Malatsi’s decision to scrap the bill has been supported by such media industry bodies as the Support Public Broadcasting Coalition, Media Monitoring Africa and the South African National Editors’ Forum.
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