ANC says DA abuses legislature
The ANC Western Cape says the DA blatantly abuses the provincial legislature for petty party political point scoring and for a fishing expedition to resolve a party related issue.
This follows the DA in the Western Cape legislature's scandalously usurping a national competency by calling the provincial commissioner Arno Lamoer to account in a committee of the legislature on national police operational action during with a joint sitting of the national Parliament's official opening.
ANC Western Cape community safety spokesperson Pat Lekker says: "The ANC is dismayed by the DA that clearly does not have the guts to deal with this matter at national level or a committee of either the National Assembly or the National Council of Provinces. Instead it bullies and beats on lieutenant general Lamoer in a demeaning way in the legislature. The DA and its partner the ACDP went out of their way to draw Lamoer into divulging operational information in a public meeting... mostly trying to get information to aid its members and bussed in DA protesters who were arrested in the street ahead of the event.
"The DA does not understand or know the Constitution or the law that regulates the use of SAPS as part of the state's security services that guard and may be used in Parliament."
The ANC says the DA shamefully abuses the legislature as a tool to do the DA's work as a minority and opposition in the national environment. The DA pretended to merely want to ‘understand' what happened.
"Today we again saw how the DA led by premier Helen Zille's storm troopers reduced the community safety committee to deliberately cast aspersions on and create mistrust against our men and women in blue. It is part of a concerted effort over years to discredit the police in the Western Cape and now spills over into the national arena and abuses the legislature as a platform to raise unrelated issues. The pathetic DA acts like an opposition where it governs instead of dealing with important provincial matters," Lekker added.
Statement issued by ANC Western Cape community safety spokesperson, Pat Lekker, March 4 2015
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