DA escalates fight for a review of the flawed Section 25 oral submission process 

24 April 2021

On 25 March 2021, the Democratic Alliance (DA) wrote to the Speaker of the National Assembly, Thandi Modise, objecting to the failure by the Chairperson of the committee, Dr Mathole Motshekga, to protect the integrity and procedural fairness of the oral submission process from the disruptive actions of other members on the committee.

Speaker Modise’s silence and failure to respond to our submissions has left us with no choice but to approach the National Assembly rules committee for a review of the Section 25 Ad-hoc Committee’s oral submission process.

The EFF’s rowdy behaviour during oral submissions and the failure by the chairperson, Dr Mathole Motsekga, to act may have potentially violated the Constitution and parliamentary rules on public participation. As such, the rules committee should make a determination of whether the oral submission process can be viewed as procedurally fair.

In March, the Ad-hoc committee had invited oral submissions from organisations and individuals that had previously indicated in their written submissions their intention to make oral presentations. The purpose of the oral submissions was to obtain exhaustive public input on the Bill, especially from the important constituency of civil society representatives.

Instead of giving these civil society representatives an opportunity to freely express their views on the Bill, Dr Matshekga allowed members from the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) to heckle and hurl expletives at them. At one point, EFF MPs Floyd Shivambu and Mbuyiseni Ndlozi launched an unprovoked attack on AfriForum Deputy CEO Ernst Roets. They labelled him a ‘racist’, ‘racist fool’, ‘racist boy’ and ‘f****** racist’. Dr Motshekga failed to protect Mr Roets from these unwarranted attacks and instead tried to place the blame on him by saying he must take the ‘meeting seriously’.

Objections by DA members to the EFF’s uncouth language and abuse of Mr Roets were dismissed by the Chairperson as irrelevant.

Dr Motshekga’s contamination of the oral submission process violated section 4.1.5 of Parliament’s Code of Ethical Conduct which enjoins all members to ‘maintain public confidence and trust in the integrity of Parliament and thereby engender the respect and confidence that society needs to have in Parliament as a representative institution’. Dr Motshekga’s conduct did not inspire confidence in the integrity of Parliament or its place in society as a representative institution.

The Constitution is also very clear on the principle that Parliament must ‘receive…representations or submissions from any interested persons or institutions’ and that the ‘national assembly [should] facilitate public involvement in the legislative processes of the Assembly and its committees’. By allowing heckling and the use of derogatory language against participants to a duly constituted parliamentary committee, Dr Motshekga may have violated the participant’s right to a fair hearing.

As such, we want to put it on record that we do not endorse nor support the procedurally flawed manner by which Dr Motshekga held the oral submission process. It was a clear violation of standing principles and constitutional requirements for public participation. We therefore place the burden of whether to allow this flawed oral submission process to stand in the hands of the National Assembly rules committee.

Issued by Annelie Lotriet, MP Chairperson of the DA Parliamentary Caucus, 24 April 2021