
Johannesburg – Parliament has on Wednesday been hit with a letter of demand to prevent Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula’s pending election as National Assembly Speaker.
The letter from Mabuza Attorneys, representing political analysts JJ Tabane, Lukhona Mnguni and the New National Movement organisation, is imploring deputy speaker Lechesa Tsenoli to “take all reasonable steps” to prevent Mapisa-Nqakula’s election.
They say the decision was imposed on the members of the African National Congress (ANC) caucus by chairperson Gwede Mantashe and the party’s top six.
According to Mnguni, Ramaphosa conflated his roles as ANC president and head of state by imposing the head of another arm of state.
“The head of the executive could actually weaken Parliament by virtue of if they’re unhappy with the members of Parliament, they simply redeploy them elsewhere because they are members of their political parties. There is a conceptual problem there from a separation of powers point.”
Should Mapisa-Nqakula’s election go ahead, he said they would consider their legal options.
“We will have a consultation with our legal team and from there, we will decide on ways towards approaching courts of law for a review of that decision.”
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