EFF REITERATES ITS CALL FOR PARLIAMENT TO BE FULLY REOPENED.

Wednesday, 07 September 2022

The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) reiterates its call that the Parliament of South Africa must be fully reopened and all members must meet physically to conduct business of Parliament, which is passing legislations and oversight of the executive. We demand that the temporary measures that were put in place due to COVID-19 lockdown regulations must be immediately suspended and Parliament fully opened because the regulations are no longer applicable.

In the meeting which was supposed to be physically held with the Speaker of the National Assembly and attended by all Chief Whips, the EFF proposed that one of the immediate measures must be utilization of Oliver Tambo Community Hall in Khayelitsha as a temporary place for the National Assembly plenary sessions. The Community Hall will be suitable because it is spacious and closer to all the Parliamentary villages where majority of members of parliament reside.

Our call for this temporary measure does not replace our Founding Manifesto's commitment that there must be one administrative and legislative Capital City in South Africa. We have in this regard introduced a private members bill to pursue the relocation of parliament to Tshwane. The relocation of Parliament to Tshwane is logically superior because it will mean that the ministers, president, institutions, departments and agencies that account to Parliament will not waste money Travelling to Cape Town to be held accountable.

Additionally, a Parliament in Tshwane will make it easier for civil society formations and communities to make oral submissions to laws before parliament because it will be possible for people from Limpopo, North West, Mpumalanga, Northern Cape, Free State, KwaZulu Natal, and Eastern Cape to drive in and out of Tshwane to make oral submissions to laws and lodge petitions and still go back home the same day.

When we are busy finalizing the necessary laws and systems of relocating parliament to Tshwane, we call on all political parties and the presiding officers to agree on the option of Oliver Tambo Hall in Khayelitsha as a temporary place for all National Assembly plenary sessions.

Our demand which we will do everything to realize is that Parliament must be fully reopened and all members must physically meet to fulfil their constitutional obligations.