Tebogo Msimanga |
“President Cyril Ramaphosa’s outright refusal to answer a question around the Phala Phala debacle posed to him on Monday’s sitting of 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”.
Democratic Alliance (DA leader John Steenhuisen said President Ramaphosa has often spoken about the nine wasted years under former president Jacob Zuma, “but Monday’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”.
Steenhuisen further said the Speaker of the National Assembly, Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, has also revealed herself to be no different to her predecessors during the Zuma era.
“Parliament needs to establish an ad-hoc committee to investigate Phala Phala, a request that the DA has repeatedly called for, and a request which the Speaker of parliament has avoidably denied”.
He added that parliament must not be restrained by a Speaker whose allegiance is to her party, and not the people of South Africa. The DA will seek to move a motion of no confidence in Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula for shielding the executive from scrutiny.
“President Cyril Ramaphosa is accountable to the people of the republic, and the DA will ensure that South Africans are rightly provided with the answers they deserve for his blatant wrongdoing”.
