OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Friday
A REPORT which recommends the formation of a Commission for Gender Equality failed to be accepted by the National Assembly this week because the African National Congress majority did not muster the required number of votes.
All opposition parties voted against the report, charging that the proposed commission was not representative and inclusive enough.
They said only people sympathetic to the ruling party had been nominated by the ANC-dominated special parliamentary committee which had sifted through candidates.
When the report was put to the vote, 191 MPs voted for and 81 against.
Chairperson Johannes Mahlangu announced to loud applause from the opposition benches that as the Constitution required 201 (50 percent plus one) to vote for such a measure, the report had not been accepted.
The ANC has 265 MPs of the 400 in the House.
In his reaction, ANC Chief Whip Tony Yengeni said: “We view the absence of members in a serious light. The ANC will bring the matter back to the House.”
Speaking during debate on the report, Lulu Xingwana (ANC), who chaired the selection committee, said the list of 11 nominees included gender activists and academics. The ANC did not prioritise people according to party loyalties, she said.
But this was not a view shared by any opposition speaker.
Bernice Sono (DP) said the “final product has been held hostage by the most powerful grouping in the Parliament, the ANC”.
Not one of the four candidates proposed by the DP and NNP had made it on to the final list, she said.
Professor Hariett Ngubane (IFP) said the Constitution required that the committee be broadly representative of race and gender, but only one male had been chosen.
Sheila Camerer (NNP) appealed to President Thabo Mbeki to send it back to the committee so that it could be made more representative and inclusive.