North West Provincial Legislature abandons constitutional mandate on petitions: THE SPEAKER MUST GO!

Issued by Freddy Sonakile MPL – DA Caucus Leader, North West Provincial Legislature
07 Dec 2021 in Press Statements
Note to Editors: Kindly find attached soundbites in English and Sesotho by Freddy Sonakile MPL.

In serious violation of sections 17, 115 and 118 of the Constitution, the North West Provincial Legislature (NWPL) has abandoned its role in processing petitions.

Despite encouraging people to write petitions, the NWPL Petitions Committee last sat in 2019 to process petitions. Seventeen of the petitions referred to the Committee have not been processed yet. Some of these petitions date back to 2019. It is in serious violation of the Constitution and is a clear case of undermining the people of this province.

The North West Petitions Act, used as a guide on how petitions are to be processed, was repealed a few years ago and since then, no means have been devised to deal with the processing of petitions. The Committee that is supposed to process petitions has no Chairperson and the staff are redundant.

Despite scheduling meetings of the Petitions Committee sittings in the quarterly programmes of the NWPL, the Committee simply does not sit. The matter was brought to the attention of the Speaker, Susanna Dantjie, who has refused to act on it. This testifies to the Democratic Alliance’s previous plea that the Speaker should be fired because she continuously fails to lead the Legislature effectively.

The DA submitted a request for a motion on her removal almost a year ago. She has avoided and ignored it. The DA will now write a letter to the Speaker demanding her to table the motion of no confidence at the next sitting. Alternatively, Susanna Dantjie can do the right thing and just resign.

Since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic in early 2020, the NWPL has failed dismally in its functions of public participation and public access. The involvement in the NWPL was limited to Facebook broadcasts of sittings.

In recent public hearings to discuss the Division of Revenue Bill, members of the public indicated that the NWPL has no bite. This has proved to be correct by the ANC’s failure to run an efficient Legislature that is supposed to be a beacon of hope to the residents of the North West province.