The 10th Speaker of the National Assembly, Dithapelo Keorapetse, has iterated that his mandate is to see through that the 13th Parliament is independent and is not influenced by the Executive.
Keorapetse, who was the Leader of Opposition (LoO) taking over from Dumelang Saleshando in the last Parliament, stated that it is quite imperative for Parliament to be independent. He stressed this when addressing the media at the Parliament building today. “Our mandate as the 13th Parliament is to see this house independent. It should have its own responsibilities that are not influenced by the President or anything,” Keorapetse stated. The former Selibe-Phikwe West Member of Parliament (MP) stressed that this has been their wish even when he was part of the opposition but it never came to fruition in the past regime. “These are things that date back to the late 1970s when MP’s wanted Parliament to be independent but till date Parliament is not independent,” he said.
He suggested that people who were spearheading to see Parliament independent were left out in the cold because of their tenacity, which led them to being put on sidelines. “If there was one speaker who pushed for the Parliament to be independent is Margaret Nasha and you all know that she did not last because of that. She served only one term,” Keorapetse raised concerns. However he stated that before Nasha was ousted she had done a research on the strategies to adopt in order to make Parliament independent, which will serve as a starting point for them for insights. He also recognised the importance of engaging with the previous speakers to help him fulfill his mandates as a speaker. And what he can do to ensure that Parliament remains independent. Despite being ambitious to see Parliament being independent, Keorapetse stressed that impediments will be on the way. “We have already started internal conversations to make Parliament. It is my intention of course there may be challenges that hinder me but my goal remains to make Parliament independent,” he emphasised.
He suggested that people who were spearheading to see Parliament independent were left out in the cold because of their tenacity, which led them to being put on sidelines. “If there was one speaker who pushed for the Parliament to be independent is Margaret Nasha and you all know that she did not last because of that. She served only one term,” Keorapetse raised concerns. However he stated that before Nasha was ousted she had done a research on the strategies to adopt in order to make Parliament independent, which will serve as a starting point for them for insights. He also recognised the importance of engaging with the previous speakers to help him fulfill his mandates as a speaker. And what he can do to ensure that Parliament remains independent. Despite being ambitious to see Parliament being independent, Keorapetse stressed that impediments will be on the way. “We have already started internal conversations to make Parliament. It is my intention of course there may be challenges that hinder me but my goal remains to make Parliament independent,” he emphasised.
