BARNEY MTHOMBOTHI: How parliament is finding its spine
'One would hope that this is the beginning of a new dawn and that MPs won't lower their guard and start grovelling to a new master'
Not there yet, but parliament is beginning to move in the right direction. MPs are slowly emerging from slumberland. They seem to have the bit between their teeth. They want to make up for lost time. For too long MPs were used either as battering rams or voting fodder. It was almost as if their brains were not required. (True, some of them behave as if they don't have any.) They pretty much did as they were told; like children, always at the beck and call of those in power.The situation hasn't changed much in the National Assembly, especially when the subject at hand happens to be President Jacob Zuma. There the lines remain firmly drawn. The problem may not necessarily be Zuma. The institution suffers from poor leadership. The speakership was never a priority for Baleka Mbete. It was merely a means to other ends. With Zuma running (down) the state and Cyril Ramaphosa calling the shots at Luthuli House, the term "two centres of power" has again become the mantra in political convers...
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