When ministers didn’t pitch up or members left empty benches and Stof was trying very hard, I once said to Stof, ‘You are the chief whip, why don’t you write to Madiba or see him because they should be coming to Parliament.’
One of the National Party members, an Italian Afrikaner as he called himself, used to call snap debates, and this was showing us up. So Stof did go and the ministers got letters from Madiba, to say they must be there. But he also said, ‘You must find a way of making sure that you don’t put too much of a burden on them because they do have other work.’ So he used to act.
Return to 7.3 A people’s parliament
Return to 7.3 A people’s parliament