CASAC MEDIA STATEMENT ON CHAOS IN PARLIAMENT
A new low for democratic South Africa
Friday, 13 February 2015
Last night's State of the Nation Address was a very sad day for South Africa's democracy.
Political leaders in Parliament need to urgently reflect on the implications, both political and constitutional of what occurred during the Joint Sitting of Parliament. They need to account for what transpired and provide solutions so that ordinary people can be assured that our democratic foundations are not being permanently eroded.
CASAC believes that there were a number of Constitutional transgressions that demand immediate attention.
1. The cellphone signal in parliament should not have been scrambled and disabled, as it breached the constitutionally-protected rights to receive and impart information (guaranteed in sections 16 and 32 of the Constitution).
An immediate investigation should be launched to determine who was responsible for ordering the blocking or scrambling of the signal, and on what basis such an order was given.
2. By seeking to disrupt the State of the Nation Address, opposition MPs from the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) abused parliamentary rules and convention to the point where the Constitutional rights of other MPs and the President were infringed.
While it is certainly important to recognize that the rights to free speech and the privileges of all MPs must be carefully protected - on the basis that MPs are elected by the people to represent the views and interests of the electorate as they see fit - so it follows that this principle applies across the House to all MPs.
3. The State of Nation Address is the occasion at which the President, as head of the national executive, reports to Parliament on his government's programme. To deny the President this opportunity is to undermine the accountability function of Parliament. If the President is unable to set out the programme of his Government, Parliament will have no basis on which to subsequently hold him to account.
4. CASAC also recognizes, however, that the President has not yet provided adequate answers to questions that were posed to him in August last year relating to the Public Protector's findings and remedial action on Nkandla. This, too, represents a failure in constitutional accountability that must be urgently rectified by the President.
5. The identity of the security officials that entered the Chamber to remove the EFF MPs from the chamber must be determined as a matter of great urgency. If any of the officials were from police or state security, then this represents a serious transgression of parliamentary sovereignty, since The Powers Privileges and Immunities of Parliament and Provincial Legislatures Act of 2004 makes it clear that police or other public order forces may only enter Parliament if there is an ‘imminent danger' to life or property. The response of the security officials would appear to be entirely disproportionate to the problem of removing recalcitrant MPs.
The source of the decision to order the deployment of such non-parliamentary security officials must also be determined as soon as possible, and the terms of engagement of such forces urgently clarified within the legal framework.
6. The authority for ordering that all EFF MPs be removed from the Chamber must be also examined. While it would appear that the party as a whole was intent on disrupting SONA, at the time that the Speaker made her ruling, only 4 EFF MPs had actually spoken.
Now is the time for calm, principled leadership that respects the Constitution values and principles, and is able to rebuild the dignity of parliament.
Statement issued by Lawson Naidoo, CASAC, February 14 2015
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