Gaye Davis
A POLITICAL wrangle is looming over who will succeed deputy speaker of the National Assembly Dr Bhadra Ranchod, who has made himself available for a diplomatic post. There is no constitutional provision for power-sharing when it comes to parliamentary positions. The overwhelming majority of committee chairs are held by the African National Congress — a sore point for the National Party, which failed to foresee this possibility during constitutional negotiations. Ranchod, an NP MP, was elected deputy speaker in 1994 after an agreement was forged between NP leader FW de Klerk and President Nelson Mandela. The NP believes this agreement should last for the life of the current Parliament. Speculation this week was that a possible replacement would be Constitutional Assembly co-chair Leon Wessels, who will be looking for a job once the final constitution is written, around mid-year. But the ANC is unlikely to roll over on the issue. ANC MP Baleka Kgositsile said this week: `The NP must not assume the position of deputy speaker is theirs to decide.’ She said the issue had not yet been discussed by the ANC, but might be at its next national executive committee meeting on February 9. It was safe to assume the debate, about the extent to which parliamentary positions should be shared between parties, would be re-opened, Kgositsile said. The departure last year of Inkatha Freedom Party MP Faith Gasa for a seat in the KwaZulu-Natal provincial legislature led to just such a debate, though the ANC finally decided an IFP member should succeed her as deputy chair of committees. NP spokesman Marthinus van Schalkwyk said: `We see it as an agreement between the two parties for the term of Parliament and not in terms of individuals.’ Ranchod has described speculation about him possibly switching his political affiliation to the ANC as
However, he did not discuss the possibility that he would become South Africa’s next high commissioner to Australia with party leadership and news of it took the NP by surprise. A new deputy speaker will be elected by the National Assembly at the first possible sitting, once Ranchod — a former ambassador to the European Community in Brussels –formally vacates the position.