CINE has withdrawn without appointing a chairman, the first meeting of the Parliamentary committee, which will monitor the operation of the Office of the President of the country.
At this meeting held in Parliament yesterday, the chairman of the committee that will monitor the performance of the president and his office officials should have been chosen. It is the first time in this country that there has been a committee like this, as the president and his deputy only explain their plans when they answer questions in Parliament as well as in the Council of Provinces.
The problem that caused the chairman not to be chosen, was caused by the fact that there are things that need to be clarified for the members of this committee, before the process of appointing the chairman continues.
There are three names of members that have been suggested to be chosen as the chairman of the committee. The DA has been blowing their noses saying that they do not want the chairman of the committee to come from the side of the ANC because there will be no justice.
DA member Mr. Baxolile Nodada, nominated Mr. George Michalakis, DA’s Chief Whip to be the chairman of the committee. The ANC nominated the Deputy Chief Whip, Ms. Doris Mpapane for this position, while the EFF nominated the new MKP Chief Whip, Mrs. Mmabatho Mokoena-Zondi.
Ms Mpapane got five votes, while Mrs Mokoena-Zondi got four and Michalakis got two votes.
What struck a chord is that Michalakis, who supported the nomination of his name in this position, voted again. The members of the committee complained that there is no problem for him to vote for this position, but to support the promotion of his name, that is what they can hear. This made the temporary chairman, Mr. Mvaba Dumezweni, to ask for an opportunity to communicate with his colleagues about what the policy is about this.
He also said that there is a need for him to get other opinions about the policies before the chairman is appointed. He did not announce the results of the voting, he promised the members that the meeting to appoint the chairman will be called again on another day, once they get a full opinion on the goals.
The members emphasized that this meeting must be held again within this week.
Michalakis said ActionSA, MKP, EFF and UAT, if they vote together they can support the DA.
“These groups are the ones who offered the position of chairman to the ANC. My name was suggested first to prevent this position from falling into the hands of the ANC. These groups want to give MKP a position, since it is the DA that has always put pressure on having a similar committee in Parliament,” he said.
He accused MKP of not having clear plans without disrupting the functioning of Parliament.
Some of the things that will be done by the committee is that the Director General in the office of the president will answer about the budget, the president and his deputy will answer about the things that affect the goals of the country.