Cape Town - Finance and Economic Opportunities MEC Mireille Wenger was forced to table her R242 billion “Budget of Action” facing empty opposition benches after opposition parties, led by the ANC, walked out of the chamber following a row with speaker Daylin Mitchell.
The clash was over alleged racist remarks made by Freedom Front Plus MPL Peter Marais last Thursday during a sitting when he referred to black Africans in the Western Cape as “refugees”.
He has since said he stands by his statement.
Mitchell had said then that he would consult Hansard (an edited verbatim record of what was said in the legislature) and make a ruling at the next sitting, which was on Tuesday.
However, on Tuesday Mitchell said that because Marais was not in attendance and his ruling would have needed a response from him, he would wait until Marais was present to deliver the ruling. This decision upset members of the ANC and the EFF, with ANC chief whip Pat Lekker saying the matter needed to be addressed urgently.
As Lekker was speaking, ANC members silently held up placards that read: “DA and FF+ promoting racism in the province”.
Responding, Mitchell repeated his statement that because the member affected was not present he would not make the ruling and was backed by the DA chief whip Wendy Kaizer- Philander, who said if members were aggrieved by the speaker’s ruling they should follow process and write to the speaker.
EFF MPL Thembile Klaas voiced his disagreement with the ruling and when the ANC members left the chamber in protest, he also left. GOOD Party MPL Shaun August did not attend the session on Tuesday and neither did the Al Jama-ah member, Galil Brinkhuis.
In the lobby, leader of the opposition Cameron Dugmore (ANC) said though they had walked out, they would take note of the budget and contribute in the committee stages.
Dugmore said: “We want to put it on record that this isn’t just the racism of the FF+ and Peter Marais, they are joined in this racism by the DA through the speaker, and through the absolute silence of Premier Alan Winde and others who simply allowed the speaker to get away with not taking a firm ruling against Marais.”
In her budget speech, MEC Wenger said that of the R242bn, R1.1bn had been set aside to ramp up energy security and decrease reliance on Eskom.
“This includes R598.4 million to reduce the impact of load shedding, to boost the green economy, to set up a strong pipeline of green energy projects, scale up support to municipalities to help them get more power into the grid, and to identify critical transmission infrastructure upgrades.”
She said R39.8bn had been allocated to boost economic growth and R4.7bn had been allocated to community safety.
mwangi.githahu@inl.co.za