Parliamentary shambles brings legal action

Party leader Julius Malema says the EFF will seek an urgent interdict against the riot police who entered the National Assembly during the heated session on Thursday. 'It can never and will never be correct for the police to interfere with the proceedings of Parliament, because elected members of Parliament will always be in fear that whatever they say and do in Parliament will be subjected to the police,' he is quoted as saying in a report on the News24 site. 'Like in Marikana, the police have once more engaged in an illegal activity, demonstrating their incompetence and that they act on political instructions.' Malema said the EFF had approached its lawyers with a view to asking a court to declare it illegal for the police to enter the chamber. Tempers flared in the House on Thursday when ANC MPs retaliated by objecting to motions the opposition tried to bring to delay the tabling of a report on upgrades to President Jacob Zuma's homestead at Nkandla. Full report on the News24 site

Four DA MPs have lodged assault complaints, three against the police and one against an ANC Deputy Minister, following the fracas that erupted when police entered the National Assembly to remove EFF member Reneilwe Mashabela. Mashabela had refused to withdraw her statement that President Jacob Zuma was a 'thief', notes a report in The Independent on Saturday. Terri Stander, Gordon Mackay and Juanita Terblanche lodged criminal complaints at the Cape Town Central police station, while Dean Macpherson said he went to the Durban North Police Station. ANC spokesperson Moloto Mothapo said the DA was 'claiming assault by the police' after its party members had interfered with the lawful conduct of the officers. Terblanche lodged a complaint against the Deputy Minister of Higher Education, Mduduzi Manana. Outside the police station, Terblanche alleged Manana assaulted her after she crossed the aisle to ask Tourism Minister Derek Hanekom what was happening. While speaking to Hanekom she said she was 'shoved by Manana and two women grabbed me by my arm and by my wrist and by my elbow'. 'They just held me, and one of my colleagues, Darren Bergman, saw from across the floor what was happening because they tried to drag me into the ANC fold. He literally got me out of there,' she said. Mothapo countered, however, that it was the DA members who started the brawl. 'Some DA members could be seen clearly attacking the police,' he said. Full report in The Independent on Saturday (subscription needed)

Members of the police who stormed the National Assembly did so on their own initiative after Parliament's security refused to remove Mashabela. A Saturday Dispatch report says four members of the SAPS Public Order Policing (POP) Unit entered the chamber. Once inside, they manhandled Mashabela. Lieutenant-Colonel Lotz and four other public order policing members, dressed in black body armour, pushed Mashabela in front of them. Lotz told her: 'Listen lady, this is not how we do things in SA,' notes the report. In the process of pushing out the EFF MP, Lotz's shirt was torn. About 10 parliamentary security staff were at the door, watching. They had earlier refused to enter the chamber when the sergeant-at-arms Regina Mohlomi asked them to help her remove Mashabela. Full Saturday Dispatch report (subscription needed)

The DA will no longer recognise National Assembly Speaker Baleka Mbete, the party's parliamentary leader Mmusi Maimane said, according to a report on the IoL site. He said what happened last week had prompted a 'fundamental change' in the DA's approach to the institution. '(Speaker) Baleka Mbete lost control of the House and destroyed her credibility as Speaker. Accordingly, we will cease to recognise her authority as Speaker.' Every time Mbete presided over the House, 'the DA will send only its Chief Whip, its deputy Chief Whip, and those members participating in the debate itself'. Maimane said he had written to the leader of government business, Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa, asking that he support the passing of a motion of no confidence in Mbete, and that Parliament elect a new Speaker. He had further called on Ramaphosa to take other steps to restore order in the House, including 'that he supports the election of a member of the opposition as one of the presiding officers to restore objectivity in the position'. Referring to the events of Thursday evening, which saw riot police entering the House, he said Ramaphosa should also take steps to ensure that this never happened again. Full report on the IoL site

Mbete defended the physical removal of Mashabela, saying she had a duty to protect Parliament as the opposition was trying to tarnish the legislature, says a report on the News24 site. 'We could not sit here in this institution and forever allow disruptions and outrageous conduct of honourable members who have come here not to work as we all do, but to come here and just push the boundaries in the process to rubbish this institution of the people,' she is quoted as saying. 'We have never (before) had reason to call the police. It must be understood that it is incident after incident.' Mbete said Thursday's disruptions were plotted in advance by opposition parties and marked the culmination of a strategy that became apparent on 17 June, when the fifth Parliament formally opened. 'It was in that debate that this trend that we have been observing started to show,' she said. 'There is no way we are going to allow ourselves to come here and each time just be disrupted.' Asked who gave an order to briefly cut the television feed from the chamber when chaos erupted on Thursday night, Mbete did not answer directly but denied that the move constituted censorship. 'We don't have a policy of censorship, we all know the attitude of our democracy on those matters but all those issues have limitations,' she said. Full report on the News24 site

Neither Mbete's office nor the ANC in Parliament have ruled out the deployment of police in the National Assembly in future, and will not hesitate to take similar steps against unruly opposition MPs who defy orders, according to a report in The Mercury. 'The law says the presiding officer has the right to remove disruptive characters holding to ransom the business of the House. That is in the law,' ANC caucus spokesperson Moloto Mothapo is quoted as saying. He added there had not been any 'change in the applying of those laws' and that the 'ANC has been very understanding' until now. Mbete's spokesperson, Mandlakazi Sigcawu, paraphrased and quoted sections of the Powers, Privileges and Immunities of Parliament and Provincial Legislatures Act to make her point. 'Sections four and 11 provide that the security services may enter upon and perform policing functions on the precincts with the permission of the Speaker or chairperson,' said Sigcawu. Full report in The Mercury (subscription needed)

The SA National Editors' Forum (Sanef) has expressed concern at interference with the audio and visual feed in Parliament whenever there are disruptions, notes a report on the News24 site. 'Sanef is disturbed by the continuing interference with the audio and visual feeds from Parliament each time there is chaos in the National Assembly,' Sanef chairperson Mpumelelo Mkhabela said. 'On Thursday, the feed was cut off at a time when there were scuffles. This followed two other incidents on 21 August and last week when a member of the opposition was arguing with the Speaker ending with that member being suspended.' In the latter incident, the feed was manipulated to stay focused on the Speaker, and did not allow the public to get the full view of what was happening in the House, he said. Sanef has sent a letter to Parliament spokesperson Luzuko Jacobs, protesting against the 'soft censorship' creeping into the broadcast of proceedings, and requested a meeting. Full report on the News24 site

Those behind the police's intervention and the suspension of the parliamentary TV service must be held accountable, the Right to Know Campaign (R2K) said. 'South Africans have the right to know who gave these instructions and who should be held to account for such deeply undemocratic tendencies,' its spokesperson Murray Hunter is quoted as saying in The Citizen. The R2K would write to the whips of the parties in the National Assembly asking for a probe into the matter. He said that the incident reflected a society 'where many ordinary people sadly still face exactly these kinds of violations - censorship, silencing, and brutality at the hands of the police'. The ANC's parliamentary spokesperson Moloto Mothapo said the unit was part of the parliamentary security system, rather than riot police. Hunter said R2K wanted to know who authorised them to enter Parliament. 'The act has significant consequences as it is not only a breach of ... Section 58 of the Constitution - which prohibits arrests, criminal or civil procedure on Members of Parliament for what they say in Parliament - but has the effect of irrevocably undermining Parliament as a democratic institution in the eyes of citizens.' Full report in The Citizen

A Sunday Times report puts President Jacob Zuma at the heart of the shambles. It says his demand that ANC MPs use their numbers to crush opposition in Parliament is to blame. It notes Zuma, in a scathing address, had told his party's members to stop being 'accommodating'. Instead, he instructed, they should not allow 'hooliganism' in the National Assembly that challenged the ANC's authority in a 'most abrasive and shocking manner'. The call to defend the ANC came at a national executive committee (NEC) meeting in September - but was only made public recently. It seems to have had a direct influence on the brawls in Parliament on Thursday. The report notes that it was the first time since apartheid Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd was assassinated in 1966 that police officers entered the chamber during a sitting. Six of the police officers were in full riot gear, armed with side arms and carrying pepper spray on their belts; five others were in normal uniform. The Sunday Times says it appears that the police presence was carefully planned. In the days leading up to the fight, the police presence at Parliament was beefed up to levels not seen before, with about a dozen police vehicles descending on the square in front of the National Assembly at one point on Tuesday afternoon. Parliament had taken the unusual step of putting members of the riot police on stand-by in anticipation of an opposition ruckus. They were allocated a committee room on the third floor of the National Assembly to use as a holding venue during sittings of the House. ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe defended Zuma's orders, reportedly saying ANC MPs had to put an end to 'hooliganism' in the House. Full Sunday Times report (subscription needed)