Loyal ANC cadre deployed to act spokesperson for Parliament

16 February 2017

The DA is totally opposed to the completely inappropriate appointment of Moloto Mothapo as spokesperson for Parliament.

We will be posing tough questions to the Joint Standing Committee on the Financial Management of Parliament today and tomorrow on what process what followed in his appointment, which candidates were considered, and when interviews were conducted.

It is unfathomable how someone so blatantly partisan can be considered as appropriate to assume the role as spokesperson for a multi-party institution like Parliament one day after vacating the position of spokesperson for the ANC Caucus.

There is no doubt that the ANC’s dirty tricks will be extended to Parliament at the public expense.

It is nonsensical that Parliament should have a spokesperson at all considering the Speaker of the National Assembly and the Chairperson of the NCOP are the de facto spokespersons for the Legislature.

Parliament is a public institution consisting of 12 political parties and will be grossly undermined by the appointment of a spokesperson who will be neither balanced nor fair in communicating on behalf of the Legislature. Mothapo will be nothing but a spokesperson for the ANC in Parliament as opposed to the institution itself.

It is disappointing that Parliament is not immune from the blurring of lines between state and party, which currently threatens so many of our public institutions in South Africa.

The person who assumes the role as Parliament’s voice needs to be non-partisan. Anything less amounts to the capture of the institution.

Issued by John Steenhuisen, Chief Whip of the Democratic Alliance, 16 February 2017