Opposition wants Speaker to reconvene parliament

They have asked the court to review and set aside the tabling of the 10th and 11th Amendments to the Constitution, saying the amendments violated the constitutionally set procedures in terms of the constitution and Standing Orders.

They accused Speaker Tlohang Sekhamane of running amok and acting “willy-nilly in a manner not countenanced by the law and in defiance of both the rule of law and fundamental rights”.

They said Sekhamane arbitrarily adjourned parliament indefinitely “despite serious pending national issues to the violation of Constitutional democracy and in perpetuation of the already existing serious doubt as to whether government still commands confidence of majority in the National Assembly”.

Leader of Opposition, Mathibeli Mokhothu, in his founding affidavit, referred to a motion that Machesetsa Mofomobe was pushing to establish an interim committee to investigate allegations of mismanagement of the Pension Fund.

Sekhamane, Mokhothu said, arbitrarily recessed parliament in the face of this motion in violation of Standing Orders and the Constitution.
He said Mofomobe “had from time immemorial” written the motion but it “miraculously went missing from the Speaker’s own office and finally reappeared after several complaints on the part of Honourable Machesetsa Mofomobe”.

“After it has finally re-appeared after three (3) months period it was arbitrarily excluded by the Honourable Speaker on the reasoning that the Pension Fund already has Permanent Committees liable to discharge the function contemplated by the hoped for Ad Hoc Committee,” Mokhothu said.

He said by their very nature interim committees are established for urgent or emergency purposes in the presence of permanent committees already allocated similar duties.
“Secondly, the power and discretion whether to establish and/or not establish the Ad Hoc Committee is the purview of the House and not the Honourable Speaker in terms of Standing Order No: 98,” he said.
He said it is not uncommon for the House to establish an interim committee despite the existence of permanent committees per Standing Order No 98.
For instance, he said, in the last parliament an interim committee was established to investigate the complaints by wool and mohair farmers despite the existence of a permanent committee seized with long term similar powers and duties.

Mokhothu said one of the continuously important government issues immediately pending before the arbitrary adjournment of the parliament was the vote of no confidence against Prime Minister Sam Matekane.

Another one, he said, is the need for Sekhamane to revisit his wrong ruling that permitted the tabling of the 10th and 11th Amendments to the Constitution Bills despite the absence of financial backups in violation of Standing Orders and the constitution.

This motion had been tabled by Mokhothu himself.

He said the 10th Amendment to the Constitution “had huge financial implications to the state and therefore cannot be tabled without financial backup” as required by Standing Orders and the constitution.

Standing Order No 53 (4) (a) says in the case of a Bill involving the expenditure of public money an indication of the cost shall be annexed to the Bill.

The annexure shall be provided by the Finance Minister in the case of a Government Bill and by the MP presenting it in the case of any other Bill.

“The Speaker upheld this point but nonetheless pronounced to proceed tabling the Bill arbitrarily anyway,” Mokhothu said.

Mokhothu said Sekhamane arbitrarily recessed parliament at 1:00 pm on Friday instead of having preannounced the cut-off period for debates and voting to the motion.

Sekhamane, he said, adjourned parliament indefinitely on a motion which was never tabled by the Leader of the House, Deputy Prime Minister Nthomeng Majara.

“In other words he acted on his own motion i.e. mero motu/suo motu instead of being moved by the motion owner namely Honourable Nthomeng Majara.”

Caswell Tlali