Cape Town - National Assembly Speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula has broken ranks with her party over the setting up of a date for an urgent debate on rising fuel prices made by the official opposition.
This as the ruling party appears not to show much interest in the debate sponsored by the DA.
On Thursday, Mapisa-Nqakula ordered that the date for the debate be finalised by next week.
She acceded last week to a request from DA MP Kevin Mileham for a debate on urgent national public importance on how the steeply rising fuel prices impact the cost of living and steps that must urgently be taken to shield the poor.
During the meeting of the programme committee it emerged that the item was still to be slotted into the programme on a date yet to be decided.
The DA placed the issue of the debate in the committee last week, but it was advised to have it first discussed by the chief whips forum.
Mina Lesoma, a whip responsible for the programme, said the technical committee would meet to identify the date considering the programme was congested, and, it was considered for the third quarter.
DA deputy chief whip Siviwe Gwarube said the rules of Parliament provide for the scheduling of the debate when the Speaker has granted it.
Gwarube said the item could be scheduled on June 15, just before the constituency period started.
She said the debate would be moot if it was scheduled in the third quarter.
“We should be discussing it as a matter of urgency,” Gwarube said.
While ANC deputy chief whip Doris Dlakude agreed with the proposal, she said there was a technical committee that has a responsibility to find the date.
Dlakude also said nobody opposed the matter being scheduled in the third quarter when it was brought before the chief whips forum.
IFP chief whip Narend Singh said the technical committee should take serious consideration on the date before Parliament rises.
He said all political parties are concerned, including the executive, about the fuel increase because it has an impact on the economy.
Mapisa-Nqakula made an appeal that the technical programme sits and comes up with a date next week.
“When I receive a request for snap debates, I never hesitate. I look at the issue and make a decision. The programme committee must find space for the matter to be discussed,” she said.
“I appeal to the technical programme committee to provide a report next Thursday when the snap debate is to be held,” Mapisa-Nqakula said.
“I don’t know why the matter is an issue. It is an issue out there that the fuel has gone up,” she said.
“…The motion is on the table and the Speaker granted it. I am requesting you to apply your mind and make sure we deal with the matter and put it behind us,” Mapisa-Nqakula said.
Lesoma said there was no way to suggest that they were not to schedule the debate.
“We shall rise to the occasion as expected by your summary,” she said.
Cape Times