National Assembly (NA) Speaker, Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, has declined the Democratic Alliance (DA) leader, John Steenhuisen’s request to put an urgent question to President Cyril Ramaphosa. 

The President is scheduled to appear before the National Assembly this afternoon, to reply to oral questions on a wide range of issues. 

The questions on the Question Paper include the challenges of illegal immigration, gender based violence and the deployment of the South African National Defence Force to South African borders. 
 
In terms of the Rules, questions to the President must be submitted to the Speaker at least 16 days before the day on which they are to be answered for the Speaker’s approval. This is to ensure that the questions are compliant with the rules and guidelines. The provision is further intended to ensure that the President is afforded reasonable time to prepare his responses. 
 
The Rules do permit members to put urgent questions to the Executive, and this is in terms of Rule 141. 

In her reply to Steenhuisen, the Speaker pointed out that the regime for Urgent Questions is also regulated in terms of documented practice contained in the Guide to Procedure, 2004, which defines rules based on the history of practice and conventions in the House, and states that a request of that nature will not be granted if the matter can be considered by some other means in the near future. 

The DA has another opportunity to ask a question to the President on 29 September, in addition to opportunities at the disposal of the party to put written question to the President. 
 
 In this regard, based on the Rules of the Assembly, read together with the 2004 National Assembly Guide to Procedure, the Speaker was unable to accede to Steenhuisen’s request for his urgent question to be added on the list of oral question to be put to the President today.