Biased Speaker turns blind eye to misogyny and racial slurs from ANC benches

15 February 2017

I will be writing to the Speaker of the National Assembly, Baleka Mbete, and the Chairperson of the NCOP, Thandi Modise, to object in the strongest possible terms to their lax approach to dealing with misogynistic and racist comments directed at DA members by ANC speakers and backbenchers alike during yesterday's first State of the Nation (SONA) Debate.

Opposition members are regularly sanctioned by the presiding officers and, when instructed to withdraw comments, are compelled to do so unconditionally.

Yesterday, this was not the case with ANC MP and serial offender, Bongani Mkongi, who called the Leader of Opposition “a white man in a black skin” from the podium. When instructed to withdraw this “racial stereotyping”, Mkongi brazenly repeated the slur in isiXhosa by saying “uNdlebe zikhanyile onobuso obumnyama”, which loosely translates as “a white with a black face”. In so doing, Mkongi not only failed to withdraw his racist comment unconditionally, he was permitted to repeat it without consequence.

Opposition members have been physically removed for less.

It is an especial indictment of the presiding officers that DA MP Phumzile van Damme was repeatedly called a “straat meid” by a male member of the ANC without sanction. Thandi Modise was clearly taken aback by the slur, but still took no action. This disgusting, racist slur has no place in Parliament and it is abhorrent to think that an MP would debase another member and themselves by uttering such a thing in the Legislature. It this the "moral compass" of which Jeff Radebe spoke?

The Speaker is once again showing her bias and selective judgement in tolerating abuse and profanities emanating from the ANC benches. On the night of SONA an ANC member directed a loud “f*ck you” at the opposition benches. This profanity is not only recorded in the Hansard, for all posterity to see, but also caused a social media sensation when the sign language interpreter repeated it. It is a disgrace.

The indiscipline of the ANC caucus cannot be tolerated. Opposition Members of Parliament are entitled to protection from an unbiased Speaker and should be shielded from abusive language and scurrilous, disruptive points of order.

Issued by John Steenhuisen, Chief Whip of the Democratic Alliance, 15 February 2017