In parliamentary practice and politics, there’s a world of difference between “considering” and “noting”. “Considering” means saying either yes or no, or proposing a third way. “Noting” means nothing happens thereafter.
Maybe that seems pedantic, but the use of language in the national legislatures is central to lawmaking – and can be an instrument in politicking.
At Thursday’s programming committee meeting, ANC Chief Whip Pemmy Majodina proposed that the House “note” an independent panel’s recommendation of misconduct and incompetence impeachment proceedings against Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane. The panel’s report, released on Monday, states sufficient information was found to sustain prima facie evidence of misconduct and incompetence.
It’s unprecedented and it will set in motion intricate political manoeuvring in Parliament before a session of the House that will make a final decision on establishing the impeachment inquiry into Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane officially a Section 194 inquiry.
The EFF’s support for the Public Protector is on public record and its 44 MPs may well vote against establishing an inquiry into her fitness for office.
The ANC is split along factional lines and for more than a year has procrastinated on making a decision on the Public Protector. Or as ANC Deputy Secretary-General Jessie Duarte put it after the first 2020 ANC parliamentary caucus of its 230 MPs in February of that year, “There is a process in place. The ANC has not discussed where we stand, so we can’t give you an answer either way”.
Police Minister Bheki Cele on Friday said his visit to Nkandla saw him have a "broad discussion" with former president Jacob Zuma - and he "surely did not drink the tea".
Image: SABC NewsProfessor Belinda Bozzoli passed on last Saturday.
Outgoing Wits University Vice-Chancellor, Professor Adam Habib has described the passing of Professor Belinda Bozzoli as a tragic loss for higher education in the country. He was speaking at a memorial service for Bozzoli at the university in Johannesburg.
Habib says at the height of the Fees Must Fall protests, he sought Bozzoli’s counsel. Bozzoli, who had been on Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Higher Education, passed away last Saturday at the age of 75 after a battle with cancer.
She completed her BA and Honours degrees at Wits University and her Masters and PhD at the University of Sussex and Yale University. In 2006, Bozzoli was awarded an A-rating by the National Research Foundation