Watch: New communications mini

Watch: New communications minister bats DA’s first grilling like a pro [video]

Phumzile van Damme gave no quarter when she tackled new communications minister Ayanda Dlodlo in the National Assembly, but the minister passed her first roast with flying colours.

Watch: New communications mini

It’s not often you see cabinet ministers pass through the National Assembly unscathed; in fact, it’s parliament’s job to grill pretty much everyone as a means of making sure that folks are doing their jobs.

As the official opposition in parliament, the job of roasting government officials often falls on the DA’s shoulders, a responsibility the party has taken on with fervour, as chief whip John Steenhuisen so often demonstrates. he’s not the only DA MP with a sharp tongue though, as our new communications minister Ayanda Dlodlo found out earlier this week.

Watch: Youngest MP ever roasts ANC in parliament like a seasoned pro

DA MP Phumzile van Damme tore into the minister, mostly because of the criminal ineptitude of her predecessor Faith Muthambi who, like so many other cabinet ministers, oversaw the utter destruction of her department.

Dlodlo — who’s been saddled with the burden of fixing the SABC and a crippled communications department –, however, handled herself like a seasoned pro and didn’t even break a sweat as she retorted.

Related: Parliament signs off on SABC report, time to put Muthambi out to pasture

It’s a good start and, as they say, a new broom sweeps clean. Let’s hope the minister can pull her department back from the brink, and get the SABC back in line at the same time.