POLITICS

Nkandla committee now a mere ANC study group - EFF

Fighters say opposition walkout has left committee bereft of its parliamentary mandate

EFF declares the Nkandla ad hoc committee as now a mere ANC study group

29 September 2014

Economic Freedom Fighters declares the Nkandla Ad Hoc Committee as now no longer parliamentary but a mere study group of the ANC. This is because there is no sanity in insisting that this committee is of a democratic institution of a parliament that defines itself as a multiparty system. When all other parties no longer participate, which were legitimately elected by the people of South Africa, the committee rightly looses its status as representing and carrying a parliamentary mandate.

The ANC must continue in its tutorial study activities though, mostly because throughout the short life of the committee of parliament, they demonstrated very poor comprehension of related reports. ANC members were so unfocused, generic in their reference to committee issues, largely relying on common sense as opposed to deeper reliance on report details, that some resorted to painting their nails.

The departure of opposition parties must translate to the reality that in a multiparty democracy the committee no longer enjoys the legitimacy of parliaments status. In essence, it means the ANC may as well go hold that meeting in Luthuli House, with Gwede Mantashe as mock speaker and Zizi Kodwa as serjeant-at-arms.

In the South Afican parliament, founded on the principles of separations of powers and multiparty democracy, there is therefore now no longer an Ad Hoc Committee on Nkandla. There must never be a space in the fifth democratic parliament for drum majorettes and cheerleaders whose sole purpose is to protect individuals, in this case at the expense of the constitution and the people of South Africa

Statement issued by the Economic Freedom Fighters, September 30 2014

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