Election of Deputy Chairperson, Committee Business

Meeting report

The Committee adopted its agenda for the day.

The Chairperson noted the deputy chairperson of the Multiparty Women’s Caucus (MPWC) had resigned and the Caucus was meeting today to elect a new deputy chairperson.

Nomination and election of deputy chairperson

The Caucus secretary said that according to the Joint Rules, the deputy chairperson must be a candidate from the represented opposition parties. Any party could make a nomination but the nominee must be from the opposition. Each party will have an opportunity to nominate a candidate. Voting required a mover and seconder in the case of one nominee. If there is more than one nominee, voting will be done by virtual raising of hands. Notice of the election of the deputy chairperson will be published in the ATC.

The Chairperson called for nominations.

Mr Z Majozi (IFP) nominated Ms M Hlengwa (IFP).

Ms Hlengwa indicated she was available to stand as deputy chairperson.

Ms M Ntuli (ANC) seconded the nomination.

The Chairperson asked how many votes were needed to elect the deputy chairperson [from the Members present].

Ms S Lucas (ANC, NCOP Deputy Chairperson) asked if a threshold of votes was required.

Ms K Tlhomelang (ANC) suggested all the nominations be taken and then the names go to vote [by majority]. She had never heard of a threshold.

Members agreed.

Ms S Gwarube (DA) nominated Ms N Sharief (DA).

Ms Sharief indicated that she was available.

Ms A Abrahams (DA) seconded the nomination.

Ms P Abraham (ANC) nominated Ms L Van Der Merwe (IFP).

Ms Van Der Merwe said she was unavailable. She supported the nomination of Ms Hlengwa.

The nominations were closed.

The Chairperson called for Members to raise their hands if they supported the nomination of Ms Hlengwa. Those that could not raise their hands on Zoom, would be manually recorded through their oral support.

Ms T Breedt (FF+) suggested the vote be done as in the House [where a party representative says how many of their Members are present on the platform and the total number of votes for that party].

There was a back and forth disagreement between Members.

The Chairperson said she would continue with the manual counting of hands.

The Caucus secretary said there were 59 raised hands in favour of Ms Hlengwa.

The Chairperson asked for Members to register their vote vocally if their raise hand function was not working. She urged for the process to run its course.

Ms G Boroto (ANC) cautioned that since the number of votes was announced, more hands were raised. She suggested the Chairperson allow for some time between raising hands and counting the hands.

Ms Lucas proposed the party whips state how many votes there were from their parties. She appealed for fairness and the votes be counted afresh.

Ms Z Nkomo (ANC) added that this was the first such virtual nomination in the Caucus. She supported having the party whips declare the votes per party.

The Chairperson agreed to use the voting procedure as it was done in the House, per political party via the whip.

Ms Nkomo said some time was needed to determine how many Members were on the platform.

Members agreed to three minutes before the platform was closed.

Ms Nkomo said the ANC had 50 Members on the platform voting in support of Ms Hlengwa.

IT was asked to assist in verifying the numbers.

Ms Gwarube said the DA has 21 Members on the platform voting for Ms Sharief.

Dr S Themekwayo (EFF) said the party had three Members on the platform but abstained.

Ms Majozi said the IFP had four Members on the platform in favour of Ms Hlengwa.

Ms Breedt said the FF+ had two Members voting in favour of Ms Sharief.

The other political parties did not have women MPs and were not present.

Total number of votes for Ms Hlengwa: 54

Total number of votes for Ms Sharief: 23

Three abstentions.

Ms Hlengwa was declared the deputy chairperson of the Multiparty Women’s Caucus.

Ms Hlengwa thanked Members for the votes and nominations. She assured Members that she would support the relevant stakeholders and Chairperson of the Caucus to take the work of the Caucus forward. Women faced many challenges and needed to come together with one voice.

Committee minutes

The Committee considered and adopted its minutes dated 1 September 2022.

Committee programme

Members considered their programme for the remainder of the year. A programme around 16 Days of Activism was highlighted.

Members suggested including items around the Day of Reconciliation, World AIDS Day and People Living with Disabilities Day. A suggestion for next year was for the Caucus to look at gender-based violence in the workplace.

Members asked that Ministers be present at the meeting.