It will be a busy week in parliament with numerous budget vote debates taking place most days.
Ministers give speeches during the debates, often making important policy announcements. Among the debates taking place will be those on communications & digital technologies, transport, employment & labour, and trade, industry & competition.
However, just as the dust appeared to be settling after a budget impasse that threatened the stability of the government of national unity (GNU), the axing of DA member Andrew Whitfield as deputy minister of trade, industry & competition last week has caused renewed friction.
The DA decided at the weekend that in addition to mobilising against the national dialogue to be led by President Cyril Ramaphosa it would vote against the budget votes of human settlements minister Thembi Simelane and higher education & training minister Nobuhle Nkabane. The DA insists that if Ramaphosa fired Whitfield for unsanctioned international travel, then he must also remove ministers accused of corruption.
DA leader John Steenhuisen last week gave Ramaphosa 48 hours to remove compromised ministers from his executive, starting with Simelane, Nkabane and deputy water &sanitation minister David Mahlobo, but Ramaphosa did not blink.
“We won’t be voting against the budget [as a whole] and, I think, that is a result of the fact that we want to ensure that delivery proceeds for the people of SA. But those individual budget votes where ministers are severely compromised and sitting at the top of those departments will obviously have to find other ways to get those budgets passed,” Steenhuisen said on Saturday.
National dialogues are often official negotiation forums typically convened to address issues of national concern, often long-standing causes of conflict that have been brought to the fore by political protest or armed insurrection.
Ramaphosa has cancelled his trip on Monday to Seville, Spain, to attend a conference on financing for development. The postponement was due to his trying to manage the fragile GNU. Ramaphosa delegated international relations minister Ronald Lamola to attend the conference, with his office saying in a weekend statement that this decision followed “recent political developments that require close monitoring and management in the country”.
The conference is expected to address new and emerging issues and the urgent need to fully implement the sustainable development goals, and tosupport reform of the international financial architecture.
Later this week, Austrian President Alexander van der Bellen will visit SA. The programme of the business mission includes a high-level business round-table with government representatives and a SA-Austria Business Forum. Van der Bellen is expected to meet Ramaphosa on Friday.
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