“Zille last took questions on September 12, she has more interest in the National Assembly and other provinces than leading this one.”
|||Cape Town - Opposition parties in the Western Cape legislature are fuming after Western Cape Premier Helen Zille indicated that she would be missing this month’s sitting on Thursday.
The ANC accused Zille of being an absent premier who continually ducked and dived to avoid answering questions in the legislature.
The outraged ANC chief whip in the Western Cape legislature, Pierre Uys, said that MPLs had been told Zille would again not be present in the legislature to answer questions.
Uys said it was becoming more apparent that the legislature wasn’t one of the premier’s priorities.
“Zille last took questions on September 12… she has more interest in the National Assembly and other provinces than leading this one.”
Uys remarked that the last time Zille had to take questions, last month, “she opted to attend, among other (things), a South African Institute of Race Relations discussion in Gauteng”.
“Either she does not want to answer to the legislature or she can’t and therefore runs away. It is unacceptable that she treats with disdain this legislature who elected her and where the constitution says she must account.”
Zille’s spokesman, Zak Mbhele, said Uys was being disingenuous, as he was well aware that this would be only the second time this year that the premier would miss facing questions without notice.
“The first time was because she was attending the President’s Co-ordinating Council on October 17, which all premiers have to attend. Second, he omits the fact that the provincial parliament had some constituency weeks in the two-month intervening period during which the House did not sit,” Mbhele added.
But Cope’s Mbulelo Ncedana agreed with ANC’s sentiments, saying to his party’s surprise and disappointment, Zille would not be present for the next two sittings.
Ncedana asked how it was possible that Zille could arrange other meetings when there was going to be a sitting of the House.
“We fully concur with the ANC. For us it works better to question the premier face to face because then you can have follow-up questions.”
The provincial leader of the African Christian Democratic Party, Grant Haskin, said that he too was disappointed that the premier would not be present.
“These are necessary components of parliamentary work, which we had very few of in this last period. There’s one more formal sitting next month, and (Zille) is not going to be at any of them.”
Haskin said the questions to the premier without notice was an ideal opportunity to get responses on current and urgent things.
He added that the DA was quick to criticise President Jacob Zuma when he did not attend sittings.
“It’s disappointing and does not help our work.”
warda.meyer@inl.co.za
Cape Argus