EFF must face charges at Ethics Committee and SAHRC

9 September 2020

The Democratic Alliance (DA) has laid a complaint with Parliament’s Joint Committee on Ethics and Members Interests against EFF Members of Parliament (MP) that were involved in the incitement of violence and destruction of property during the Clicks protests that happened across the country this week.

We have also laid a complaint against the EFF leadership with the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC).

The conduct displayed by EFF leaders and MPs on social media, at various shopping centres and on streets across South Africa is truly appalling. Shops have been petrol bombed, workers and customers have been intimidated and members of the media were manhandled when they strove to do their jobs.

Just today,  EFF MP, Mbuyiseni Ndlozi, defended their members’ harassment of the press by tweeting that “I really do not see harassment here. Merely Touching her is not harassment. The touch has to be violent, invasive, or harmful to become harassment!”

The EFF’s justification of their violent behaviour is appalling and at odds with their roles as MPs and their duty to uphold the tenets of our Constitution.

The DA has always supported South Africans’ right to protest. It is when protests descend into anarchy causing violence and destruction, that serious consideration must be given on whether this form of protest is nothing more than an intimidation tactic meant inspire fear and blind obedience.

This violence and destruction has distracted from the legitimate pain and anger which resulted from Clicks’ offensive and insensitive advert.

In no act committed by the EFF this week was there an ounce of compassion for the workers whose livelihoods depends on Clicks as their employer. There was no afterthought about the loss of income that would be incurred while shops are closed to be fixed.

The EFF likes to claim that they are all about empowering the poor towards economic freedom yet they have done very little to put those words into action. They like to scream it in the streets and shout it on social media, but when push comes to shove their actions do the exact opposite. It often results in sporadic destruction of businesses, which inevitably leads to the workers – often the poorest of the poor – suffering financially.

The EFF needs to be shown the error of its ways by the Ethics Committee and the SAHRC and must be stopped in their destructive tracks.

Issued by Natasha Mazzone, DA Chief Whip, 9 September 2020