Chris Louw
THE ANC and the National Party showed this week they were prepared to make up the rules of a government of national unity as they go along.
First, legislation was bulldozed through parliament before being referred back to the relevant standing committee. Then it was decided to amend the constitution to allow for a new finance minister who does not belong to a political party.
The ANC caucus on Sunday refused to accept a clause in the Constitution Amendment Bill allowing for parliamentary advisers, in spite of the fact that a decision had been taken by the standing committee on constitutional affairs.
The amendment _ providing for advisers to the offices of the president and the deputy presidents _ was approved by the standing committees of both the National Assembly and the Senate. Parliamentary rules prescribe that changes to legislation have to be referred back to the standing committees, but these were ignored and the amendment was scrapped by the National Assembly.
Deputy Provincial Affairs Minister Mohammed Valli Moosa proposed that the rule be suspended. The NP’s chief whip, Hennie Smit, strongly objected, but the NP nevertheless supported the exclusion of the amendment without referring it back to the standing committee.
Smit said his party was lenient because it knew the ANC was not yet used to parliamentary rules and procedures. However, he said, the message had to go out that parliament abided by the rules and did not act in an ad hoc manner.
Later on Tuesday, President Nelson Mandela and Deputy President FW de Klerk said the constititution would be changed to allow Chris Liebenberg _ whose name does not appear on any party list _ to replace Derek Keys as finance minister.
The current constitution says that a minister must be chosen from parliamentary ranks. It also rules that if a seat is vacated, as in the case of Keys, this should go to the next person in the list of the same party whose member vacated the seat. This technicality would rule out Liebenberg.
Mandela said it was his right to choose a finance minister. The constitution will be changed because Liebenberg will take up his post as an independent member of the Cabinet. The NP will be allowed to appoint another Cabinet member, to keep the balance, bringing the total of ministers to 28 _ one more than allowed for by the transitional constitution.
All changes to the constitution are at present being brought about by parliament itself. Questions have been raised about the role of the Constitutional Assembly, which will have to decide on a final constitution for the country.
The rejection of the constitutional amendment allowing for advisers followed an ANC caucus meeting on Sunday. The caucus came out strongly against the creating of the post of a parliamentary adviser, arguing that it would undermine the separation of parliament and the executive.
The ANC caucus also decided to get tough with members who did not turn up for standing committee meetings. The ultimate penalty could be removal from parliament. Of the 26 ANC members supposed to serve on each standing committee, at times less than 12 attended.
It was decided that the chairman of each standing committee will in future compile regular reports on attendance so that the ANC can be requested to remove defaulters from parliament.