President Jacob Zuma will, in the middle of May and for the second time this year, have to face the members of Parliament in the quarterly Oral Questions and Answer session, the African National Congress (ANC) said on Wednesday.
“The Office of the ANC Chief Whip confirms that President Jacob Zuma will appear before the National Assembly on 17 May 2016 at 10:00 for the quarterly Oral Questions and Answer session with MPs,” said the office’s spokesperson Moloto Mothapo.
Mothapo rejected assertions by the Democratic Alliance (DA) that Zuma would be a no-show.
“Unsurprisingly, the DA’s usual lies and misinformation recently claimed publicly that the President will not be appearing before the House this year to respond to questions from Members of Parliament,” Mothapo said.
“This is despite the DA having been part of both the National Assembly Programme Committee and the Chief Whips Forum meetings, where parties agreed that the Questions and Answer sessions with the President should not be scheduled on the current version of the programme of parliament until discussions with the Presidency regarding the exact dates of his availability are concluded”.
Mothapo said this consideration had been made because of the “extraordinary nature” of the 2016 parliamentary programme which will be interrupted by the August local government elections.
“Despite 2016 being the year of the elections, which affects the normal programming of Parliament as there are fewer plenary sessions, the President will still appear before the House four times to respond to MPs’ questions,” said Mothapo.
“The DA’s mindless posturing was therefore opportunist, desperate and unnecessary.”
– African News Agency (ANA)
