ANC secures chair of parliament’s new Presidency oversight committee

The ANC secured the chair of parliament’s new Presidency committee on Thursday. ANC MP Dorries Eunice Mpapane was elected chair with five votes. ActionSA MP Athol Trollip received four votes, while DA MP Baxolile Nodada secured two.

The ANC and PA members on the committee voted for Mpapane, while the DA used its two votes to support Nodada. Other opposition — MK, EFF, ActionSA and UAT — backed Trollip. The split in opposition votes allowed the ANC candidate to secure the chair.

The Presidency committee was recently established to provide direct parliamentary oversight of the president and the Presidency — a development that has drawn attention because the governing ANC now chairs a committee tasked with overseeing an ANC president. The vote came a day after the committee was forced to postpone the election following a dispute over procedural irregularities during the nomination process. During Wednesday’s meeting, DA chief whipGeorge Michalakisseconded his own nomination for the position after being nominated by his colleague Nodada.

[paywall]

Parliamentary legal advisers later ruled that while self-nomination is permissible, a member may not second their own nomination. In an advisory note presented to the committee on Thursday, legal services explained that seconding a nomination serves to demonstrate independent support for a candidate. “Logic dictates that you cannot validate yourself.

I believe the MK’s sole purpose in parliament is to destabilise the institution, and therefore a vote for Trollip would be a vote for the MK in this instance Legal advisers further found the participation of an improperly co-opted member during the earlier meeting had also compromised the process. Because those procedural issues affected the validity of the proceedings, the committee was advised that the election should be rerun to preserve the integrity of parliamentary processes. Michalakis had argued the committee responsible for overseeing the Presidency should not be chaired by a member of the same party as the president.

He also defended the DA’s decision to field its own candidate, saying the party believed it was best placed to lead the committee. However, when nominations opened, despite holding only two votes on the committee, the DA chose not to support Trollip and instead put forward its own nominee.

[/paywall]