Deputy Speaker | Radio 94.7 FM

The appointment of Mluleki Ndobe as deputy speaker in the KwaZulu-Natal legislature on Wednesday has ruffled feathers.

The provincial legislature sat for the first time on Wednesday for the swearing-in of Sihle Zikalala as premier, as well as speakers and new MPLs.

Zikalala hailed his election as a responsibility to serve the people of the province, rather than a position. Delivering his acceptance speech after being sworn in by KZN judge president Achmat Jappie in the provincial legislature in Pietermaritzburg on Wednesday, Zikalala pledged that he would not disappoint the people.

“I’m conscious of the fact that this is not a position but rather a responsibility to serve our people,” he said.

Zikalala, who takes over from outgoing premier Willies Mchunu, also called on various political parties in the legislature to work together for the people of the province.

“We’re coming from different political p
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Deputy Speaker of the Limpopo Legislature, Lehlogonolo Masoga, is fighting the recommendation by Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane that he should pay back “a reasonable portion” of a phone bill of R125 000 incurred while on an official trip in the US in August 2014.

Masoga was in the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, to have the report reviewed and set aside. He apparently ran up the bill in less than one month.

It has been claimed that a significant part of the bill comprised the cost of watching porn. The public protector, however, did not make mention of this in her report.

The legislature settled the huge bill, but the matter is not going away for Masoga, who disputed the bill. According to him, the Vodacom bill only amounted to slightly more than R99000.

The public protector at first investigated the bill after a Sunday newspaper in 2015 reported that “an official racked up a R100k porn bill” while on a trip to the US. The publ
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