Opposition Parties fighting against the use of police in the Houses of Parliament

19 March 2015

Note to Editors: The following statement was delivered by the Leader of the Opposition, Mmusi Maimane MP, during a joint Opposition Parties media briefing at Parliament.

The last time we sat together as Opposition Party Leaders it was in defence of the Constitution, as the highest law in the land, and of Parliament as the national legislature tasked with protecting the interests of South Africans and holding the Executive accountable for its actions and inactions.

The Fifth Parliament of democratic South Africa has seen a series of unprecedented events that have left the nation in shock and pushed the country's hard earned constitutional order to a near breaking point. 

This has all been done in order to protect one man: President Jacob Zuma.

With the deployment of ANC Chairperson, Baleka Mbete, to serve as Speaker of the National Assembly, parliamentary rules, procedures and processes have been manipulated and broken in order to protect the President at the expense of the institution and its functions.

It started with the ANC-only Nkandla Ad Hoc Committee, which was designed to absolve the President of wronging for the renovations that took place at his private Nkandla residence. This R246 million taxpayer-funded project has become a poster for corruption and President Zuma's plethora of scandals and crises.

In this process, the ANC and the President trampled on the Constitution and Chapter Nine Institutions, specifically the Public Protector, by calling Advocate Thuli Madonsela a cocktail of names, even going to the extent of calling her a CIA spy. Furthermore, they have reduced her Office to that of an ombudsman and downgraded remedial actions to mere recommendations.

We have seen how Speaker Mbete has ruled from her throne with an iron fist and come down hard on the Opposition for demanding consistency in the application of the rules, and that she uphold the Constitution.

Mbete has handled President Zuma and his Executive with kid gloves, when her role is to ensure that Parliament fulfills its role as an Executive oversight body, not a tool that serves to protect the President and his Executive.

As aforementioned, we have seen unprecedented events in the Fifth Parliament, which culminated in the forceful and violent removal of the EFF Parliamentary Caucus by the Police, during the opening of Parliament on 12 February 2015. This was at the behest of the Speaker of the National Assembly and the Chairperson of the National Council of Provinces.

A recent reply to a DA written question to the Minister of Police confirmed that the ‘white shirts' were  indeed members of the SAPS from the Counter Assault Team and Public Order Police Units.

This is not the first time that the Speaker deliberately disregarded the principle of the separation of powers - which ensures the operational and political independence of Parliament, the judiciary and the Executive - and undermined the Constitution.

On 11 August 2014, Public Order Police in full riot gear were called to the National Assembly, but were then withdrawn before entering the Chamber.

During a debate on Nkandla, on 13 November 2014, police were again called. This time they entered the Chamber in order to assault Opposition Members of Parliament (MPs) and forcibly remove Honourable Reneilwe Mashabela of the EFF, who called President Zuma a "thief". A number of DA and EFF MPs were injured and hospilatised during this event. Charges against the SAPS have been laid in this regard.

This was a shameful event that shook the nation on that late evening. Something broke on that day, and the ANC have no intention to fix what was broken.

On 12 February 2015, a day of high drama and national shame, was marked by the arrest and assault of DA members by the police, and the deliberate militarisation of the Parliamentary Precinct by the Executive in cahoots with the Speaker and Chairperson.

The use of Police, an agency of the Executive, to intimidate, assault and remove MPs from the Chamber is an attack on the separation of powers and Constitution.

As Opposition Parties, we are united in condemning the use of the police in Parliamentary affairs.

On 12 February 2015, the Presiding Officers invoked a section of the Powers, Privileges and Immunities of Parliament and Provincial Legislatures Act, which permits the presence and use of the security services in certain events, with the permission of the Speaker or the Chairperson.

During the opening of Parliament, Section 4(1) of this Act was used, wrongly so, illegally so, we counted.

The DA is currently awaiting judgment in the Western Cape High Court, on this matter, specifically pertaining to the validity and constitutionality of Section 11 of the Act, which gives the Speaker and Chairperson authority to summon the security services to remove and arrest "A person who creates or takes part in any disturbance..."

We submitted to the Court that this is directly at odds with the Constitution and the doctrine of separation of powers.

This is because section 58 of the Constitution, read with section 71, states that Members of both Houses of Parliament are not "liable to...arrest...for anything that they have said in, produced before or submitted to the [NA or NCOP] or any of its committees."

We therefore contend that the part of Section 11 of the Act authorising arrest should be declared unconstitutional or be declared not to apply to Members of Parliament.

We are willing to go all the way to the Constitutional Court to fight this matter.

It cannot be that MPs are removed from the Chamber or threatened with undue police force in the execution of their duty to hold the Executive to account. This duty is laid down to MPs in terms of the Constitution. MPs cannot talk truth to power if they are threatened with arrest.

Issued by the DA, March 19 2015

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