MBOMBELA – Although Speaker of Legislature, Ms Thandi Shongwe stands by her order that DA MPL Ms Jane Sithole should cover up, her deputy, Mr David Dube, hasn’t scolded Sithole once during the past two sittings, despite her wearing the very same dress.
The sitting on March 31 was shrouded in controversy as ANC MPL, Mr Victor Windvoël accused Sithole of being too revealing in legislature.
Shongwe sided with him and ruled that the dress was not in line with the decorum of the house and ordered her to cover herself up during the sitting. Furious and shocked, Sithole demanded an apology and the DA even marched to legislature to hand over a memorandum to this effect.
Since then, Shongwe hasn’t attended one legislature sitting. Shortly after the march on April 24 Dube said there was a bereavement in her family, explaining her absence. However, during the most-recent sitting on Tuesday, the DA’s Mr Anthony Benadie again questioned the whereabouts of Shongwe on which Dube replied that she had had duties elsewhere.
On enquiry, Shongwe told Lowvelder that she was currently out of the province and had no obligation to tell the media if she would attend the next sitting expected to be on May 19. “The matter is now sub judice and should be sorted out in the house,” she said.
“I never accused Sithole of anything, and if the DA wants to talk to me about that, it must come to my office.”
She still stands by the fact that Sithole misinterpreted her words. She said the DA MPL was not properly dressed for the house as her shoulders were not covered by her clothing.
“Maybe the DA has to go back and read the rules of the house,” she said. The Speaker said Sithole’s shoulders were initially covered with a scarf and she noticed this had been removed later in the sitting.
“We expect her to apologise and we will not give up until she does,” Ms Portia Adams, spokesman for the DA, insisted. “We are, however, expecting some kind of response, but we are going to have to wait and see,” she added. At the next sitting the DA will continue its quest for an answer.
View photos of DA’s march.
Read more about the march here
