The African National Congress in KwaZulu-Natal expressed outrage on Wednesday at the ruling of the Speaker of the provincial legislature, an Inkatha Freedom Party member, who ”abruptly” adjourned the sitting of the House on Tuesday night to an undecided date.
The party has accused the IFP of ”stage-managing the abortion of the sitting because they wanted to stall voting that had to take place at the end of the proceedings”.
ANC provincial spokesperson Mtholephi Mthimkhulu said in a statement on Wednesday that the voting was on issues of transformation that were vigorously pushed by the ANC with the support of the smaller parties in the legislature.
Mthimkhulu said the ANC objected to the ruling of the Speaker because it believed he (the speaker) should have dealt with members that were disruptive in the House.
”We strongly believe that the Speaker’s ruling was clearly favouring the IFP because from the onset the party was against the debate that was in progress.”
He said: ”The chaotic situation in the House was caused by IFP members honourable Laurreta Ngcobo and honourable David Ntombela.”
Mthimkulu said the rules of the House provided that if the presiding officer realised that there were some disruptions in the House, he or she should immediately deal with the disruptive members or adjourn the House for at least 10 minutes.
”Yesterday [on Tuesday], the speaker deliberately chose an extreme option, namely, to adjourn the House sine die [to an undecided date].”
However, the ANC would not be discouraged by the incident.
”We will forge ahead with our transformation agenda,” Mthimkulu said. — Sapa