Hon members, the programme of the National Assembly have adopted a hybrid approach to House sittings. This means that members are physically in attendance in the Chamber as you can see and others are joining in through the virtual platform. Social distancing measures have been put in place and needs to be strictly adhered to throughout the meeting. In terms of the National Assembly Rule 6, the Speaker frame Rules to make provision for virtual sittings of the National Assembly. Rule 6 says that:
"The Speaker may give a ruling or frame a Rule in respect of any eventuality for which these rules or orders of the House do not provide." In doing so the Speaker must "give due regard to the procedures, precedents, practices and conventions developed by the House and on the basis of constitutional values and principles underpinning an open, accountable and democratic society".
A Rule framed by a Speaker remains enforced until the House, based on the recommendation of the rules committee has decided thereon. The Rules on virtual sitting of the House were published in the ATC on 15 April, supplement the Rules of the National Assembly which remains in force and applicable to all sittings of the National Assembly. These Rules were also endorsed by the National Assembly Rules Committee on the 19 May.
Hon members, in order to facilitate today's proceedings, the following measures have been implemented: Technology in the Chamber has been arranged such that members in the Chamber will see and hear members who are virtually connected to the plenary just like we heard in the beginning. In future, there needs to be order than there was in the beginning. Similarly, members on the virtual platform will see and hear members who are in the Chamber and have been orderly up to so far. The Speaker and other presiding officers will be chairing this plenary from virtual platform.
All members are required to mute their microphones and only unmute when they are recognised to speak, and this is because the microphones are very sensitive and will pick up noise which might disturb the attention of other members. When recognised to speak, please unmute your microphone and connect your video. Only then, members may make use of icons on the bar at the bottom of their screens or at the top depending on the instrument they are using which will give you an option that allows a member to put up his or her hand to raise points of order. The secretariat will assist in alerting the Chairperson and presiding officers about members requesting to speak.
When using the virtual system and in the Chamber, members are urged to refrain or desist from unnecessary points of orders as we normally say in the House or the interjections. I also wish to indicate that the group chat on the virtual platform is disabled. The matter was discussed by the Whippery and that was the agreement.
Hon members, I also wish to indicate that under current circumstances, our interpretation service is severely strained. However, limited interpretation will be available only when the floor language changes from English. On the virtual platform the following languages will be interpreted into English, IsiXhosa, IsiZulu, Setswana, Tshivenda, Sesotho, Xitsonga and Afrikaans. In the Chamber the following languages will be available: siSwati, Sepedi and Isindebele.
Hon members, the only item on the Order Paper are questions addressed to the Ministers in Cluster 2: Social Services and 3: Governance. There are four supplementary questions on each question as you know hon members. Parties have given an indication on which questions their members wish to pose a supplementary question on. Adequate notice was given to parties for this purpose. This was done to facilitate participation of members who are connecting to the sitting through virtual platform. The members who will pose supplementary questions will be recognised by the presiding officer. In allocating opportunities for supplementary questions, the principle of fairness amongst others has been applied. In other words, including and mixing as diverse a number of parties as possible in asking supplementary questions. If a member who is supposed to ask a supplementary question through the virtual platform is unable to do so due to technological difficulties, the party Whip on duty will be allowed to ask the question on behalf of their member.
When all the supplementary questions have been answered by the executive, we will proceed to the next question on the Question Paper. I am glad to remind members that in terms of Rule 142, the time allocated for questions is three hours.
The first question has been asked by hon M D Hlengwa to the Minister in the Presidency for Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities. I have been informed that the Minister will be answering questions through the virtual platform. Before the Minister answers this question, I would like hon members in the Chamber to rise so that we observe a moment of silence for those who have lost their lives due to Covid-19; and to their families, we send our condolences. [Moment of silence observed]
Thank you, let's be seated. Hon Minister in the Presidency! Hon members as you know, the time allowed for each initial reply is limited to four minutes and an additional two minutes may be allowed if the presiding officer is of the opinion that the matter is sufficiently important and it requires additional time. Hon Minister, please proceed.