The questions Zuma will answer in his last appearance in Parliament for 2016
President Jacob Zuma will make his final appearance in Parliament for 2016, with his last Q&A session – the last chance for the DA to draw out any response regarding the year’s hottest topic: state capture.
Among the six main questions Zuma will face is that from DA leader Mmusi Maimane – who is set to ask if the president ordered mineral resources minister Mosebenzi Zwane and cooperative governance minister Des van Rooyen to apply to interdict the release of the Public Protector’s state capture report.
The question is the only stand-out to address the state capture report and its contents, and the last opportunity to try and corner the president in the National Assembly in 2016.
The UDM will also ask the president if he has “applied his mind” to the urgent request by Zwane to set up an inter-ministerial committee to look into the closure of the bank accounts held by the Gupta family’s Oakbay Investments by major banks.
Questions coming from the ANC involve seeking the president’s stance and long-term strategy to counter ‘uncontrollable’ consequences as the result of other countries’ political decision making – referring specifically to the surprising Brexit vote, and the election of Donald Trump as US president.
These are the questions Zuma will face:
- From the IFP: Has Government reached consensus with students on the increase on tuition fees for 2017? What is government’s position on the demand for a zero-percent increase?
- From the UDM: Has the president applied his mind to the proposal of the Inter-Ministerial Committee to look into the closure of Oakbay Investments accounts by the major banks? What is the decision in this regard?
- From the ANC: In light of the Brexit and other global political decision making, what will the nature of South Africa’s economic diplomacy be over the next decade?
- From the ACDP: Have sufficient steps been taken by government to satisfy concerns raised by sovereign ratings agencies to avoid a downgrade in their next review?
- From the ANC: What is government’s strategy going forward in the diplomatic, trade and security arenas?
- From the DA: Did the president instruct the mineral resources and cooperative governance ministers to apply for interdicts to block the release of the Public Protector’s state capture report?
The DA has asked speaker Baleka Mbete to recuse herself from the session, saying that her move to eject the DA from Parliament in the previous sitting was evidence that she could not act without bias.
The ejection happened after DA MP Denise Robinson referred to president Jacob Zuma, as ‘JZ 783’, drawing the ire of the ANC caucus, which called for the term to be withdrawn.
Mbete sided with the ANC, calling the reference derogatory, and asked Robinson to withdraw her comment.
Robinson, along with DA chief whip John Steenhuisen, who demanded to be heard, declined to do so after questioning how the term could be viewed as derogatory.
Following a brouhaha, Mbete asked Robinson to leave the podium, at which point Steenhuisen and DA party members staged a walkout.
The DA said it would challenge Mbete’s ruling in court.
Loading ...