Hon Speaker, hon Deputy President, I move without notice:
That the House -
(1) adopts the Report of the Portfolio Committee on Communications on the inquiry into the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) Board and that the House in so doing recommends, to the appointing authority, the dissolution of the Board as envisaged in section 15A(1)(b) of the Broadcasting Act (Act No 4 of 1999), as amended by the Broadcasting Amendment Act (Act No 4 of 2009); and
(2) upon the dissolution of the Board, instructs the Portfolio Committee on Communications to proceed immediately with the process of recommending -
(i) five persons for appointment to an interim Board as contemplated in section 15A(3)(a) of the Act; and
(ii) one of the members of the interim Board as the chairperson and another member as the deputy chairperson as contemplated in section 15A(4) of the Act.
[Applause.]
Are there any objections?
Mr Chairman, this is not necessarily an objection, but I do rise on a point of order.
What is the point of order?
The DA members on the committee have clearly seen the report, and have agreed to it, but as far as I am aware, sir, this has not been printed in the ATC or anywhere else, and has not been circularised. I am asking you, sir, how members of this House can be expected to vote on something that they have not seen? Because normally, under customary practice, we should have had a copy of this report in our pigeon holes, at least.
It is on p 231 of the ATC of 26 June.
Mr Chairman, 26 June? As far as I am aware, the committee only finalised the report yesterday. So I am not quite sure which report we are referring to here.
The report is printed. It was printed on Friday, 26 June. I have a copy of the report here.
Mr Speaker, I think the important point here would be: Is there any guarantee that the report has not been altered in any way? Is the report exactly the same as it was on 26 June? [Interjections.]
Order! Will you allow the speaker to be heard? Continue, hon member.
Mr Speaker, I think the important point is this: The report may have been printed on 26 June in the ATC, but we as members are unaware as to whether there has been any amendment to this report, or anything like that at all. Because we are told that the committee only approved the report last night. We are not at all aware as to whether this is the same report that appeared in the ATC on 26 June.
Well, it is on the Order Paper, and clearly members should have checked on the Order Paper. Are there objections?
Mr Speaker, we were not going to object, but I think under the circumstances, I don't believe we have any option but to object.
I now put the question.
Mr Speaker, on a point of order: I am led to believe that if there is motion without notice, there has to be total agreement in the House. I am sure that we can actually vote on this motion now.
The Rules say there does not have to be unanimous consensus on this. The objections will be noted. The objections of the DA will be noted.
Agreed to (Democratic Alliance dissenting).