Hon President, your explanation that you delivered your speech on 6 August to the Pretoria Press Club, under the assumption that your correspondence had gone to leaders of opposition parties informing them of your nomination of Adv Ngcobo, dated 5 August, is acceptable. However, the opposition parties only received this letter on 7 August after you had publicly announced that you had consulted opposition parties and the JSC.
The failure of your office and the Presidency to forward this letter to opposition parties on 5 August has resulted in the President's office undermining the constitutional requirement of the consultation process, has caused great embarrassment to the Office of the President has highly offended and opposition parties the lack of consultation.
Notwithstanding your personal explanation to me and to the media about your slip of the tongue and your response today, I would like to ask who in your office was responsible for compiling and sending the correspondence to opposition parties which, incidentally, also referred to an appointment and not a nomination. Secondly, I would like to ask whether any action has been taken against this person or persons for failing to send the appropriate correspondence at the appropriate time to opposition parties before you made the announcement about nominating Judge Ngcobo. Thank you. [Applause.]
Thank you, hon Speaker. Firstly, a communication that is sent after having being written depends on how it goes. [Interjections.] It does. While I was growing up we used to receive post written by hand. After you have written a letter, you don't know when it will arrive, really. [Laughter.] [Applause.] You can't say that if you were to act in the manner in which I did, you would then wait until you had a response to then say that indeed the letter had arrived. Once you have written a letter and it has been posted, you have written a letter. [Laughter.]
Now, I think if we said that we cannot move until a letter has been responded to, then it would be a new way of corresponding among ourselves. You write a letter and once you have posted it, you then act on matters that you need to act on, unless you are writing a note like here in Parliament which can be sent by a messenger who can see it being given and responded to, or you can see that, yes, it has been handed over to hon member so-and-so.
I am in Pretoria; you are in Cape Town. I write a letter and leave it in the office, and I don't necessarily follow who the particular person in the office is who deals with it. I think, again, that would be a new thing. If you are talking about the Office of the President, there are quite a number of people there. I have never followed each and every letter - who they were written by - and I don't see why I should conduct an enquiry now as to who actually dealt with it.
The fact of the matter is that the letters arrived; not so? [Applause.] And they arrived not over a week later but in a matter of three days, not so? The post was quick enough. I don't think we should pick up on the issue. I could appreciate the issue if I had spoken when the opposition parties had not received the letter. But once an explanation was given, the matter to me, really, was not a matter to be pursued - because I had given an explanation publicly on what happened, and the letters were dated.
By the time I spoke to the Pretoria Press Club, the letters had been written. For example, I had already sent the letter to the JSC. I had met with the chairperson of the JSC and had had the letter hand-delivered. So, really, I don't see why this should be a big issue. That is the explanation. I don't think I can explain it in another way. I also do not think that it needs some enquiry. I don't think so. [Applause.]
We thank the hon President.
I have on my list the following hon members who will be asking supplementary questions: the hon Meshoe, the hon L H Adams and the hon Gungubele. Will you please move closer to the nearest microphone hon Meshoe.
He's still around. I left him here; I still find him here. [Laughter.]
Still around, sir.
I must be honest, Mr President, that I am disappointed by your response ... [Interjections.] [Applause.] ... because your office needs to be efficient. Your office must be efficient, Mr President. There will be important correspondence that will be expected wherever in the world. If that correspondence does not arrive in time, you cannot come up with an excuse like that, that "I know a letter was written". Those who work in your office must ensure that when you say a letter should be written and sent to opposition leaders, then it must be done on time.
Having said that, it appears from relevant legislation that should the President's nominee be appointed Chief Justice, he would only serve for a period of two years given that he has already been a judge for 13 years and that Constitutional Court judges normally serve for a maximum of 15 years. In view of this, we want to know why the President chose as Chief Justice someone who is so close to retirement. We also want to know what the President's response is to media speculation that Judge Sandile Ngcobo's appointment as Chief Justice is a ploy to hand over the post to Judge Hlophe in two years' time. Thank you. [Applause.]
Thank you, hon Speaker. Hon Meshoe, I think that this is absolutely unfair. You received the letter in three days - in three days - and not in three weeks or after a week. Really, unless there is a political motive, why should this be an issue? As I said, if on the day that I spoke to the press club you hadn't received the letter but received it a day thereafter, then it ought not to be a big issue. I made that clarification that it ought not to be a big issue. If you had said to me that you still had not received the letter after a week or after five days, I would understand.
I'm not saying that the Office of the President must not send out letters on time. But really where is the cutoff time here, and in what way was the letter sent? Now, the point is that you are sticking to a point which I don't think is a point to be stuck on because I have said that I gave an explanation. Absolutely. If you said to me, "Look, for a whole month we didn't receive any letter" - maybe we backdated these letters - there could be some room for speculation. The matter is straightforward, I think. I am even answering those who are still going to ask follow-up questions, so that they don't come back to this question. [Laughter.] [Applause.]
With regard to the time, the fact of the matter is that Judge Ngcobo is still a member of that institution. There's nothing in the Constitution that says that you cannot appoint a judge if a certain amount of years are left before his retirement. There is nothing out of order there. [Applause.]
Also, with regard to Judge Hlophe, I don't know where that comes from. I don't think I want to respond to speculation by the media. They speculate about everything under the sun. If I were to chase after those speculations, I am sure I would be speaking the whole day. So, that is not a matter of reality that needs my attention at this point in time. [Applause.]
Hon President, seeing that seniority within the judiciary and appointments in accordance thereof form part of the concept of the rule of law, do you hereby set the precedent that appointments for a Chief Justice and a Deputy Chief Justice would be at random according to your preferences?
Hon Speaker, I don't really understand the question. I don't understand because I have followed the Constitution and the law. There is nothing that has been random here. So, I don't understand the question. What should I answer? [Applause.]
Hon President, as the ANC's historic mission has always been to build from the ruins of the apartheid dictatorship a truly tolerant, diverse, democratic and united South Africa and nation and that this vision of our glorious movement lives in the spirit of our Constitution, also affirmed by your state of the nation address with the commitment made to work with the opposition, also with the engagements with all key stakeholders in our country and on several occasions your commitment to ensuring the independence of the judiciary, noting the aspersions cast on this commitment by various statements and noting also that nomination is an intended appointment, how does the President intend and plan to entrench these ANC-stated values, both in the ANC and the Constitution, going forward, regarding unity and ensuring tolerance and diversity in our country?
Well, as the speaker has just indicated, there are matters that are guided by the Constitution and the law, and we will certainly continue to ensure that those are entrenched and that they are followed. There is also the question of the principle of working together for the same country even if we are in different parties. We will continue to do that because we believe that for the good of the country, that should happen. So we will continue to ensure that those principles are followed and work for them as much as we have said in statements and in actual practice, and meet with colleagues to discuss things that we believe are national interests for all of us.
Some of us believe that even if we belong to different parties, we are one with one objective - we all want a prosperous and successful South Africa. We might differ about how we reach that. Those are the matters that I think we need to be talking about all the time. Therefore, even when we argue or disagree, to what extent do we do that on some of the issues that may be issues of common interest? So, we will continue to follow those principles. Thank you. [Applause.]
Government policy regarding public servants having businesses that transact with the State, and prosecution of corrupt public officials
3. Rev H M Dandala (Cope) asked the President of the Republic:
(1) Whether the Government intends introducing policy with regard to public servants who have businesses that transact with the State; if not, why not; if so, what are the relevant details;
(2) whether he will instruct Ministers to co-operate with the prosecuting authority in bringing corrupt public officials to book; if not, why not; if so, what are the relevant details?