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The Democratic Alliance is taken aback that the North West Premier Supra Mahumapelo sees no problem in abandoning his official responsibilities in the Provincial Legislature to spend a week co-campaigning with Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma in her quest to become the next President of the ANC.

A sitting in the NW Provincial Legislature, scheduled for Tuesday was moved to Thursday. The excuse given for the postponement was that some legislature members were attending a NCOP event in the Free State.

However, as the week progressed, it became clear that the postponement was in fact to accommodate Supra who was tailing NDZ around the Province as she attended to ANC business.

Yesterday, Thursday 24 August 2017, the Premier failed to attend the rescheduled sitting despite having called for a debate on the state of the provincial economy. When he called the debate he had indicated that he wanted to “teach the opposition a lesson in Economy 101”.

Instead of giving that “lesson”, he chose to attend an ANC Cadre’s Forum in Matlosana.

Of major concern is that Speaker Susan Daantjie allowed herself to be used to violate the rules of the house to appease Supra, NDZ and the ANC. She made no effort to reprimand the Premier for not tendering an official apology for failing to attend a debate that he called for.

The rules of the house are clear. If a member calls for a debate, they should lead and close the debate. If they are unable to attend the sitting, they should submit a written submission on their failure to attend and delegate the responsibility to another member.

This week the report on Trends on Poverty was released and it confirms the DA’s point that our local economy is in shambles.

This was clearly not a good enough reason for the Premier to debate the issue and act in the interest of the millions of unemployed and poor people in the Province.

The only economic policy that the ANC is committed is so-called “radical economic transformation”, which has been exposed as a vehicle for mass corruption and looting by the ANC. It is nothing but a cover to loot and rob people of opportunities.

For Supra, supporting another Zuma for the Presidency is much more important than the long-suffering residents of the Northwest. The Premier is openly supporting the current President Jacob Zuma who is one of the main reasons for the decay and regression in South Africa. Now he is clearly vowing his support to another Zuma. Apparently, her becoming President is more important to the Premier than the suffering and hardships people in this province have to endure under the ANC government on a daily basis.

Issued by DA