By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Deputy President Paul Mashatile says, there is an urgent need for a “national dialogue” in order to address the instability caused by coalition governments across many municipalities in the country.
Mashatile was asked by Democratic Alliance (DA) chief whip Siviwe Gwarube during the Q&A session about whether would he support the party’s private member’s bill in the absence of an existing legal framework to stabilise coalitions.
The deputy president, in his response, admitted that the existing laws had weaknesses and highlighted that the South African Local Government Association (Salga) had previously developed a framework on coalitions.
“The matter of coalition governments is important and requires urgent attention and our collective wisdom,” Mashatile said.
He said the party with the biggest share of the vote should be allowed to lead.
“The party that has won the largest votes in an election should be allowed to lead a coalition and executive positions should be allocated proportionally to the votes obtained by the coalition partners.”
This would be the foundation to create stability in coalitions, according to Mashatile.
“The above-mentioned principle will then constitute the basis of the discussion at the national level, engaging in that dialogue where we can then come to an agreement on a national framework. We want to do this honourable members within the next two months. We are taking into account that there are elections next year so we don’t want to delay it.”
The deputy president called on various political parties to be involved in the process of coming up with a national framework.
“Working with the Minister of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs [Cogta], we will be inviting all political parties represented in Parliament to the dialogue on the principle of coalition government across all the spheres of government while we urgently attending to the issue of dysfunctionality of municipalities as a result of current, loosely arranged coalitions, particularly as we can see in local government.
“All the parties will start to be asked to make inputs and views to the technical committee led by the Presidency and Cogta to help develop a framework for coalition government which will consequently lead to the development of legislation.
We want to build consensus because if we don’t work together as political parties, we will fail our people, and our economy will collapse.”
Uganda’s homophobic law
Mashatile has refused to condemn outright Uganda’s state-sponsored homophobia, where a law criminalises same-sex relations.
He was asked directly by DA MP Emma Powell during a question session in the National Assembly on Thursday whether he is “willing to stand at the podium and to openly condemn Uganda’s state-sponsored homophobia”.
Mashatile responded: “Am I prepared to condemn? I am prepared to engage. I think it is the most constructive way. Thank you very much, we’ll be engaging them.”
Powell said Uganda is part of the African Union, and any member state can make referrals to the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights when a member state is actively violating human rights. She asked if South Africa would make such a referral.
Mashatile chose not to answer that question.
The original question was posed by GOOD MP Brett Herron, who asked: “Whether, considering that Uganda is on the precipice of creating a state where homophobia will be rampant and peaceful citizens could lose their lives as the president of Uganda, Mr Yoweri Museveni, is allegedly calling for much more severe punishment of members of the LGBTQIA community, he intends leading any peace missions to Uganda to protect human rights and maintain peace and stability in Uganda and on the continent; if not, what is the position in this regard; if so, what are the relevant details?”
This is against the backdrop of the Ugandan legislature passing the controversial Anti-Homosexuality Bill in March, which outlaws consensual same-sex relations, punishable by prison sentences.
Mashatile said the South African Constitution outlaws all unfair discrimination on the basis of sex, gender or sexual orientation, whether committed by the government or by a private party.
“For this reason, the government strongly believes that the rights of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Intersex, Queer/Questioning, Asexual (LGBTQIA+) are human rights,” he said.
“This matter is currently under discussion within our ranks.”
He said government must “engage persuasively” with countries not recognising LGBTQIA+ people’s human rights.
“We must endeavour to persuade because the fact that 67 countries in question criminalise LGBTQIA+ people, is indicative of the truism that our outlook of our laws is not really universal.”
Government continues to ‘capacitate’ emerging farmers
Mashatile says government will continue to implement steps to capacitate emerging farmers with requisite skills and mentorship programmes based on their needs.
“This capacity building assists farmers to optimise both production and marketing operations,” said Mashatile.
These interventions, including targeted policy instruments according to the Deputy President, seek to provide clear deliverables that are aimed at accelerating land reform and agricultural production, directly contributing to South Africa’s food security, and growing productive outputs.
He said government was “duty-bound” to reverse the injustice of land dispossession.
“Hence, land reform remains one of the foremost policy interventions in realising our social transformation agenda.”
Meanwhile, he said land reform was aimed at ensuring economic growth and inclusion in all sectors of the economy, particularly the agriculture and agro-processing value chain, which leads to sustainable food security.
However, he acknowledged that the pace of land reform has been slow.
“Section 25 of the Constitution … instructs us, amongst others, to take reasonable legislative and other measures within its available resources to foster conditions which enable citizens to gain access to land on an equitable basis.”
The National Assembly has passed the Expropriation Bill, which is currently under consideration by the National Council of Provinces.
Watch Live in the video below:
Video Courtesy of Parliament.