Hon House Chairperson, on behalf of the DA I hereby give notice that at the next sitting of the Council I shall move:
That the Council -
1) notes that video conferencing facilities between Parliament and the provincial legislatures launched a year ago with great fanfare are still not being utilised;
2) further notes that whilst this system was fully funded by the European Union Donor Funding Support Programme, it has now become a parliamentary embarrassment since it is not in operation; and
3) requests Parliament to inform it as to -
a) what the problems are;
b) whether the system will eventually be utilised;
c) when will it be operational, if it is going to be utilised; and
d) if the system will be scrapped, at what cost.
House Chairperson, on a point of order: Do we have a quorum, and what is the quorum?
What is the quorum for? Do we have a quorum for motions?
No, Chair. Do we have a quorum in this House today or not, and what is the quorum? And it's not a malicious or vindictive question; it's merely a question of clarity.
Okay, we have the Chief Whip of the Council. Chief Whip, can you respond to that?
House Chairperson, yes, we do. She must do her own calculations in so far as what the number is. She can calculate that, but, as far as we know, we have checked that. That is why we agreed that you must come in because we have a quorum. I don't remember anywhere in the Rules where it says you need a quorum for motions. However, the House will pass legislation because there is a quorum.
Thank you, hon Chief Whip, that's why I wanted to establish whether we needed a quorum for motions.
House Chair, I hereby give notice that at the next sitting of the Council I shall move on behalf of the DA:
That the Council -
1) notes that the North West province was officially labelled as South Africa's most corrupt province by the Minister for Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Mr Sicelo Shiceka;
2) further notes that the North West premier continues to showcase her "anticorruption" stance by feeding snippets to the media of a status report about the ongoing forensic and other investigations into municipalities but fails to table any report about fraud and corruption in the North West provincial legislature; and
3) acknowledges that the premier, Maureen Modiselle, was not prepared to expose criminal individuals in almost all cases involving ANC deployed cadres.
House Chair, I hereby give notice that at the next sitting of the Council I shall move on behalf of the DA: That the Council -
1) notes with deep concern and abhorrence the ANC-proposed Media Appeals Tribunal and the Protection of Information Bill, which constitutes a direct attack on South Africa's fledgling democracy; and
2) rejects both the proposed Media Appeals Tribunal and the Protection of Information Bill and calls upon the ANC to withdraw these apartheid-type proposals and to reassure all South Africans that it will not again make any further threats to the hard-fought- for democracy.
Hon House Chairperson, I hereby give notice ... [Interjections.]
Chair, hon Gunda is struggling with his identity, and now he wants to victimise me. [Laughter.]
... that at the next sitting of the Council I shall move on behalf of Cope:
That the Council debates the imminent threat of load-shedding that South Africa is once again confronted with and the effect that this will have on society as well as our economy, all because of poor planning and management by those who, in spite of their failures, get extraordinary remuneration and unwarranted performance bonuses.
Chair, I hereby give notice on behalf of Cope that on the next sitting day of the Council I shall move:
That the Council debates the lack of equitable measures by the parole board, as was evident in its granting of parole to Mark Scott-Crossley, whilst permitting fellow accomplice Mr Mathebula to languish in prison.
Deputy Chair, I give notice on behalf of Cope that on the next sitting day of the Council I shall move:
That the Council debates the recent incident of Mpumalanga's MEC for human settlements, Mr Madala Masuku, and two of his bodyguards being shot at while travelling and subsequently being robbed by three people masquerading as policemen, driving a car with a flashing blue light, which is cause for the utmost concern and determined police counteraction.
Hon Chairperson, I give notice on behalf of the DA that on the next sitting day of the Council I shall move:
That the Council - 1) notes the intention of global mining giant Xstrata to build its own power station in Limpopo, which is a clear indication of Xstrata's commitment to doing business in South Africa; and
2) therefore congratulates Xstrata for this bold move, a move that has been forced upon it by the threat of Eskom power shortages, a power crisis which has resulted from Eskom's poor planning together with short-sightedness on the part of the ANC government when it was warned of power shortages by the DA as long ago as the early 2000s.
Deputy Chairperson, I hereby give notice on behalf of the DA that on the next sitting day of the Council I shall move:
That the Council -
1) notes that -
a) European Union donor funding of E850 million was made available in previous financial years since 2005 for economic development and similar programmes, of which tourism development and upgrading programmes formed part;
b) these funds have been managed by Treasury through a project called Thina Sinakho, with an office in each of the nine provinces;
c) all parliamentary questions, further queries and contact directly with the officials responsible in Treasury for the Thina Sinakho fund or those managing donor funding have not delivered any results;
2) requests that -
a) the annual report for the Thina Sinakho fund for the Eastern Cape province be submitted to this House;
b) the Eastern Cape provincial treasury provides a quarterly report on the spending pattern of the Thina Sinakho fund to this House; and
c) any other province that also has a similar programme or fund must submit the same as above.