THE Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Small and Medium Enterprises yesterday rapped the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) ministry after its secretary Evelyn Ndlovu failed to turn up on time for a hearing.
REPORT BY VENERANDA LANGA
Members of the committee chaired by Pumula MP Albert Mhlanga accused Ndlovu of not taking Parliamentary business seriously and ordered her advance team made up of four SMEs officials to go back.
Ndlovu was supposed to appear before the committee to speak on the ministry’s first quarter budget performance at 10:30am, but her advance team only arrived 30 minutes after the appointment time.
Mhlanga said it had become bad practice that the executive did not take Parliament seriously and sending back the SMEs ministry officials would act as a warning to other ministries to be serious whenever they are invited to appear before Parliament to give oral evidence.
“If she was busy, they should have told us instead of keeping MPs waiting for her for more than thirty minutes,” Mhlanga said.
“The Secretary should have taken Parliament business seriously and be a person of integrity to the extent that if she was unable to attend or would come late for the meeting, she should have communicated with the committee on time.”
Glenview North MP, Fani Munengami and Redcliff MP, Isheunesu Muza said MPs were unable to entertain “latecomers” because they were busy campaigning for primary elections in their constituencies.
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“We are going to ask her to come back next week. However, we now want the SMEs minister Sithembiso Nyoni to appear before the committee because it has been a long time since she gave oral evidence before us,” the MPs said.
