Parliament has written a scathing letter to the uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) Party, warning it to follow the Electoral Act if it wants its outstanding members to be sworn in as MPs.
The party has blamed parliament for the delay in swearing in its new members who include Brian Molefe, Tom Moyane, singer Penny Penny, Siyabonga Gama and Lucky Montana.
Sunday World has seen a letter sent by the secretary of the National Assembly, Masibulele Xaso, to the party’s chief whip Sihle Ngubane.
Last week Ngubane accused parliament of “deliberately dragging their feet and making excuses” for not having sworn in all of its members as MPs yet.
In the letter to the MK Party, Xaso noted that parliament had no objection to Molefe, Montana, Gama, Moyane, and Penny Penny being sworn in as MPs, except for other members whose papers did not appear to be in order.
The National Assembly stated MKP’s supplementary letter, with a list of its members, was not “compliant [with the Electoral Act] and cannot be taken forward in its current form”.
Xaso’s letter reads in part: “The speaker will request assurance that all internal processes around the loss of membership of a sitting member of the National Assembly are final and have been exhausted. As such, the speaker will correspond with both the political party and the affected member.”
It further noted that “the party’s correspondence requests the filling of 16 vacancies on the KwaZulu-Natal list, however, should the loss of membership of the members be confirmed, there would only be nine vacancies arising from the KwaZulu-Natal list”.
Parliament also raised concern that “other names mentioned in the correspondence as having lost their membership are reflected on the
KwaZulu-Natal reserve list as received from the Electoral Commission”.
Parliament further asked MKP to explain where the new members the party added to the National Assembly list had come from, as the original list submitted to the electoral commission “is not depleted”.
Parliament spokesperson Moloto Mothapo confirmed to Sunday World this week that the National Assembly received a request from MKP, through its chief whip and party signatory, Ngubane, to supplement its national as well as Mpumalanga and KwaZulu-Natal provincial lists of candidates.
“Through this request, the MK Party sought to fill vacancies in the National Assembly. The correspondence also contained information on the resignation or loss of membership of certain of their designated
members not yet sworn in and the ‘removal from the parliamentary list’ of duly sworn-in members.
“Parliament formally responded to the correspondence on 12 July 2024 and informed the MK Party that the requests could not be processed as they did not comply with the provisions of the Electoral Act.”
Mothapo added that “in terms of the act, where a candidate indicates that he or she is not available to take up their seat, the next candidate on the reserve list is nominated by the party”.
“The order of the list is intended to be fixed and clear, and as such, a review of the fixed order or a change of names may only be done one year after designation. The provisions in respect of supplementation do, however, apply when a vacancy has occurred and the appropriate list of candidates of the party concerned is depleted,” Moloto told Sunday World.
He added that MKP was advised that supplementation of its KwaZulu-Natal and Mpumalanga provincial lists can only occur if the lists are depleted, which is currently not the case.
“Additionally, if a designated member who has not been sworn in is unavailable to take up their seat, there must be correspondence from the designated member confirming their unavailability.
“For members who are no longer part of the party, confirmation that all internal processes regarding the loss of membership have been finalised is required. In such cases, the speaker will communicate with both the political party and the affected members. The filling of vacancies could also not be processed where persons were nominated to fill vacancies from a list other than the list from which the vacancy had occurred,” he explained.
According to the MK supplementary letter to parliament, seen by Sunday World:
- Molefe is going to fill the vacancy owing to the loss of membership of Bongani Frans Mfiki;
- Montana will fill a vacancy owing to the loss of membership of Citron Mpho Motshegoe;
- Moyane to fill the vacancy owing to the resignation of Isaac Galeboe Menyatso;
- Gama to fill the vacancy owing to the loss of membership of Marcus Sifiso Zungu; and
- Gezani Eric “Penny Penny” Kobane to fill the vacancy owing to the loss of membership of Sydwell Matholeni Masilela.
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