Due to the fault with the electronic voting system earlier on, we will now vote on the second order of the day. The question before the House is: The approval of recommendation for appointment of Adv Sizani, Mrs C Nzimande and Mrs R Issel to serve on the Public Service Commission. Are all members in their allocated seats? The process of recording support will now commence. [Interjections.]
The system is still not working. We will have to go to manual voting. Contrary to when we vote electronically, the names of members will not appear on the minutes of proceedings of the House. Only the total number of members for or against the question will be recorded.
Order, hon members! The question before the House is: The Approval of the Recommendation for Appointment of Adv R K Sizani, Mrs C Nzimande and Mrs R Issel to serve on the Public Service Commission? The process of manual voting can now commence.
Order! The result of the manual vote is: we are 201 in the House. There are no "no" votes and no abstentions. Therefore the recommendations are agreed to in terms of section 196(8)(a) of the Constitution.
Hon Deputy Speaker, may I address you on a point of order: I know we are not voting electronically, but there is no way that there are only 201 members in the House. It's impossible.
This is the result I have been given - that there are 201 members present.
Madam Deputy Speaker, I think we should ask the hon Minister of Finance to do the counting because quite clearly the Whips on that side can't count. We are far more than 201 in this House.
I can't believe that there are so many people who can't count.
Madam Deputy Speaker, my Whips have offered to go and do the ANC's counting for them because clearly they don't know how to count. Ours do, theirs don't. Would you like our Whips to go and count for the ANC?
Order, hon members! I am sure you will be happy to know that it's the calculator here at the table that counted wrongly, not the Whips. There are in fact 302 members present. [Applause.]
Those in favour will say Aye: HON MEMBERS: Aye!
Those against wil say No!
HON MEMBERS: No!
The Ayes have it.
Question agreed to.
Nominations accordingly agreed to in accordance with section 196(8)(a) of the Constitution.
I hope the technicians will fix the system because we are coming to the schedules now.
Madam Deputy Speaker, this evening has the potential of becoming an absolute circus, I wonder if you could perhaps organise some sawdust, some elephants, some tigers and some lions so that we can make it a real circus. [Laughter.] [Interjections.]
I hope we will prevent it from becoming a real circus.
Hon Deputy Speaker, will the hon Ellis be the circus clown? [Laughter.]
He is already!
Hon members, I am told that the technicians are working on the system, so instead of taking a break, let's try to continue or we will be here till midnight. Before we go further, there is a point of order.
Deputy Speaker, on a point of order: When we postponed voting on this item earlier, the Speaker had read a set of names plus an additional set of names. The understanding was that we were going to vote on all of them because, in case one or two of the above candidates did not accept their appointment, then the others would immediately follow on. If we leave that, we might be faced with a problem. Perhaps we are supposed to attend to that?
Hon Chabane, you are correct. This happened because the new guide omitted the paragraph containing the second set of names. I take it that members have agreed. Can we have an understanding that we were voting for the paragraph that gives those two sets of names?
No, hon Deputy Speaker. I would like to help you. Technically, we did not put all those names before the House when we voted just now. Technically, we haven't done so and it could create a constitutional problem if one of those candidates is not available and somebody from the second list, which we now presume to have supported, is then appointed. I would like to help you but technically we can't do that.
Can we find a way of including that set of names because I think, as a House, we agreed earlier, before we voted, that we were voting for those names included. Let's find a way of including them. The alternative is to vote manually again - it's as easy as that.
Hon Deputy Speaker, may I suggest that we just put those names and ask if there are any objections. If not, then it is agreed.
Thank you very much. Order, hon members! Can I include the paragraph that was omitted earlier that in the event of the three candidates we have just voted for not being available to serve on the Public Service Commission, the following candidates should be considered for appointment in the order they appear: Mrs L Sizani, Mr G Mokate. Are there any objections?
HON MEMBERS: No!
Motion agreed to.