NFP: KZN Speaker ‘playing politics’ to keep Shinga for budget vote

The National Freedom Party (NFP) has accused the KwaZulu-Natal Legislature Speaker, Nontembeko Boyce of meddling in the internal and constitutional affairs of the party.

In a statement issued by the party’s Secretary-General Sunset Xaba on Sunday afternoon, the party said the Speaker’s conduct sets a deeply troubling precedent regarding how parties deploy and recall representatives.

The NFP added that it gives the impression the Speaker may unilaterally substitute her own judgment for decisions properly taken by a party, without regard for its constitution, internal processes, or procedural fairness.

“Such an approach undermines the established relationship between political parties and their deployed public representatives and risks conferring upon the Office of the Speaker powers that extend beyond its constitutional and procedural mandate,” read the statement.

Xaba said the Speaker’s conduct suggested she could assume sole authority to overturn or disregard a party’s lawful decisions, without recognising the processes through which those decisions were made.

 Xaba further stated that the Speaker’s conduct was therefore inconsistent with the fundamental tenets of legislative procedure, institutional impartiality, legality, and respect for the constitutional autonomy of political parties.

“It amounts to a flagrant abuse of the authority entrusted to the Office of the Speaker and undermines the very constitutional order, rules and democratic principles that the Speaker is duty-bound to uphold and protect. The Office of the Speaker must remain impartial, procedurally fair and firmly within the limits of its lawful mandate. It cannot be permitted to become an instrument through which internal party decisions are selectively reviewed, overturned or frustrated outside the processes prescribed by law and the applicable rules of the legislature,” said Xaba.

Furthermore, he accused her of playing politics and applying delaying tactics to allow Mbali Shinga to assist the Government of Provincial Unity to pass a budget next week. According to the NFP, the Speaker was supposed to remove Shinga after losing her party’s internal appeal last week.

“She is tiptoeing, saying that Shinga sent her a contradictory statement to ours, and she can’t implement Section 106(3) (c) as she is not sure whether an appeal was conducted 

The Speaker is playing political gatekeeping and is also playing delaying tactics to keep Shinga so that she is part of budget debates next week. As a consequence of these developments, the National Freedom Party declares that whatever political relationship previously existed between the NFP, and those political parties has irretrievably broken down,” concludes Xaba

The Speaker’s spokesperson Nomusa Phungula had not responded to the NFP’s statement.

 However, the ANC, to which the Speaker belongs, came to her defence, saying she was within her constitutional mandate.

willem.phungula@inl.co.za