15 Jun 2016

The Speaker of the National Assembly, Ms Gladys Kokorwe on Tuesday explained functions and importance of Parliament to Tsabong residents in a packed kgotla meeting.

Ms Kokorwe explained that there was a constitution for the entire nation and that parliament was run by what was called standing orders.

She said there were other two important arms which include dthe executive and the judiciary.

She further said amongst other functions, parliament was responsible for ensuring that all the laws agreed upon were implemented and whether other functionaries were doing their assigned duties.

Furthermore, Ms Kokorwe explained that there were 12 different parliamentary committees and each committee had two ministers in it.

She went on to explain the duties of each committee according to their roles, pointing out that there were two main ones being the committee of selection and business advisory committee.

“The committee of selection includes amongst others the Speaker, Leader of Opposition and chief whips,” she said.

For their part, the residents appreciated the explanation.Most of the residents asked that the parliamentary debates be beamed on the national television.

In response, Ms Kokorwe said they were hampered by lack of adequate budget to air parliamentary proceedings, but they were looking into the matter.

For his part, the area MP, Mr Frans Van der Westhuisen told his constituents that they should be proud of the developments in their area adding that some areas  in the country were not so fortunate. ENDS