dyton mupawaenda
Cape Town. – South Africa’s newly elected parliament will convene for the first time tomorrow, as parties try to form a coalition government after recent elections produced no outright winner.
“The first sitting of the National Assembly shall be on Friday, 14 June 2024,” wrote Chief Justice Raymond Zondo in an order released by the justice ministry.
Zondo, the country’s top judge, will preside over the ceremony at the Cape Town International Convention Centre, where the lawmakers will take the oath of office.
He will also oversee the election of the National Assembly’s speaker, who will then preside over the deputy speaker’s election. Zondo will then preside over the election of the next president.
The African National Congress, ANC, lost its parliamentary majority for the first since gaining power 30 years ago at the end of apartheid. The ANC will control 159 of the 400 seats in the new National Assembly.
Meanwhile, the Constitutional Court last night dismissed an urgent application by former president Jacob Zuma’s MK Party to interdict Parliament from electing a new president tomorrow.
The court ruled against the MK Party on three grounds: it was not in the court’s jurisdiction to hear the case; it was not in the interest of justice to grant direct access because the MK Party “self-created” urgency, and there was no merit in the application as the MK Party has failed to show “it will suffer irreparable harm if the interdict is not granted”. – Wires
Bongani Ndlovu
Online Reporter