MPLs’ absence during budget speeches causes concern

Many lessons are learnt when you attend the proceedings at the provincial legislature while budget speeches are being delivered, as was the case the past two weeks.

Political tolerance is one of the things that is uppermost among the members of the legislature, but opposition parties can sometimes be a farce when they want to, by opposing to cast their votes for a budget.

This happened last Friday when the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, and the department of finance presented their budgets. The scenario came about when it was time to vote for passing the budget.

The ANC had 15 members in attendance on the day, with the DA having two present. The EFF and BRA were absent. It needed at least one third of its membership to be present.

The ANC was missing 11 of its members. The DA saw an opportunity of manipulating them because if the DA voted against the budget, it would have to be deliberated on another day.

DA MPL, Anthony Benadie made it known that if they voted against the budget, it would never pass, except if the head of government business, Vusi Shongwe appealed for their vote – Shongwe made the appeal and it was granted.

Again the second budget, this time, one more member had gone out of the house, then again appealed to the ANC to request them once again, it was again granted.

During the presentations, there were frequent interruptions by the DA, to which the speaker, Thandi Shongwe repeatedly warned the DA against interrupting MECs while presenting their speeches, but lo, the DA kept on interrupting until the speaker indicated to them that they will have their chance during the budget debate.

The DA felt they had an upper hand by forcing the ANC to appeal for their vote, but in the interest of service delivery, both parties worked throughout the day in collusion, which was the best principle of democracy.
A lesson learnt from this sitting is that the ANC should guard against numbers that they have at each sitting, otherwise they will be taken for a ride by opposition parties when it comes to voting.

At the end of the day, service delivery was a winner because both parties remembered that it wasn’t about their egos, but the electorate.

I wonder what both BRA and the EFF will report to their constituencies when they are absent from such important sittings.