LOZITHA: Jabulani ‘Buy Cash’ Mabuza, the Speaker in the House of Assembly made a ruling that grounded Members of Parliament(MPs) on Friday evening after certain irregularities were identified during the counting of nominations.
This comes after Mandla Tshawuka, the Mkhiweni MP and Minister of Agriculture and Corporative consistently requested that, the counting nomination ‘votes’ must be conducted transparently for credibility purposes.
The Agriculture Minister told the House, through the Speaker, that the counting was conducted with ‘excel software’ and the numbers must automatically correspond as per the dynamics of the software and this must be done transparently for all MPs to see.
Thulisile Dladla, the Deputy Prime Minister(DPM) who was seemingly in a rush failed to convince the Speaker to take the short-cut, Mabuza ruled that, if there are concerns, then the counting must be started afresh.
“We rather knock-off late Honorable Members but, let’s do things the right way. I am now making a ruling;the voting must start afresh. Now that I’ve made a ruling, I won’t entertain submissions, we are now starting the counting afresh,” said the Speaker.
MPs are electing Women Regional MPs as per the provisions of the Constitution and this comes after voters failed to elect women to meet the global standards of gender equality.
The Speaker ruled that the counting of ‘votes’ nominations for the Shiselweni region be started afresh amid irregularities.
Speaker Jabulani Mabuza.