Didiza elected Speaker of National Assembly
Agriculture, land reform and rural development minister Thoko Didiza has been overwhelmingly elected as speaker of the National Assembly.
Didiza is no stranger to presiding over the affairs of the assembly as she served as one of three house chairpersons between 2014 and 2019 during the term of the fifth parliament.
The DA did not make a nomination for the position of speaker in terms of its government of national unity agreement and supported Didiza who won 284 votes of 332 valid votes. There were nine spoilt ballot papers.
The other nominee, EFF MP Veronica Mente, got 49 votes.
The ANC has 159 MPs, the DA 87, IFP, Patriotic Alliance (PA) 9 and FF+ 6.
Nominations for deputy speaker were African Transformation Movement leader Vuyo Zungula nominated by the EFF and DA MP Annelie Lotriet nominated by the DA.
Patriotic Alliance leader Gayton McKenzie said his party voted for Didiza and would vote for the election of Cyril Ramaphosa and the deputy speaker.
DA leader John Steenhuisen said in an interview with reporters that the DA would also support the election of Ramaphosa as president which would take place later Friday and that the DA would nominate a candidate for the deputy speaker.
The position of speaker is very powerful as he/she sets the tone and agenda of parliament and plays a crucial role in the way debates are managed. Previous speakers often ruled in favour of the ruling ANC.
Zungula nominated Mente. He said in an interview with Newzroom Afrika that it was important to have an opposition MP as the presiding officer of the National Assembly to ensure that the executive was effectively held to account.
The fact that there were two nominees required the preparation of ballot papers so proceedings were suspended for lunch. MPs voted manually by secret ballot in the ballot booths that had been set up.
Following an objection from the EFF that the counting of votes would not be undertaken on the floor of the National Assembly and under observation of MPs, but in a separate counting room, presiding officer chief justice Raymond Zondo agreed that each political party could send one observer to the counting room.
There was also another objection during proceedings by EFF deputy president Floyd Shivambu who asked for a 30-minute break to caucus and consolidate the EFF’s views on the process to follow. This happened at the conclusion of the swearing-in of MPs who were required to take an oath or affirmation of office.
Initially Zondo ignored the request and continued with proceedings, but Shivambu repeated his request, at which point Zondo asked why the party had not caucused beforehand as it knew what was going to happen.
Zondo then decided there would be a 15-minute comfort break which then took about 25 minutes.
The EFF MPs arrived 30 minutes late for the swearing in of MPs, but all the party’s MPs were eventually sworn in.
The MK did not participate in the proceedings and the swearing in of MPs and secretary to parliament Xolile George has indicated that this would happen later.
Excluding the 58 MK candidates, the total number of MPs is 342. The ANC has 159 seats in the National Assembly, DA 87, EFF 39, IFP 17, Patriotic Alliance 9, FF+ and ActionSA six each, ACDP and UDM three each, ATM Al Jama-ah, Bosa, NCC and Rise Mzansi two each, and Good, PAC and UAT one each.
