National Dialogue On Coalition Governments Bill

Al Jama-ah says the Dialogue is deceiving due to a Bill already in process.

Al Jama-ah Party is perturbed about the secrecy of a Bill on coalitions; one that is already in process of being approved. The announcement of the bill was made during the panel discussions that took place Friday evening at the University of the Western Cape.

The Party’s leader Hon Ganief Hendricks and delegates were surprised to hear about the (formulated) Bill. The announcement was made by Deputy Minister of Cooperative Governance, Mr Parks Tau.

Al Jama-ah was, in fact, initially hesitant to attend the National Dialogue fearing it was borne out of political opportunism and not in the best interest of all South Africans.

“We are perturbed about the secrecy that a Bill on coalition governments are in progress. This is deceiving for (all) political parties, who do not agree with coalition governments, but were prepared to listen to government and to state their opposing views,” says Hendricks.

Al Jam-ah holds the view that the political instability which the largest parties fear is coupled with the fact that South Africa is maturing as a multi-party democracy. Delivering his presentation this afternoon, Hendricks stated that a ‘mature democracy’ expects political party bosses to act in the best interest of the country and not that of their parties.

”If we want to see stable coalitions, then the instability of political allegiance cannot continue to dominate who is and who is not a political office bearer. This framework for coalition governments is the first step to extra-parliamentary resistance in South Africa which we must avoid,” says Hendricks.