South African Parliament a House of shame

17 May 2016

Congress of the People is not surprised at how completely the National Assembly has degenerated into a battlefield where MPs exchange blows with security officials and disorder prevails. It is a national disgrace.

After 1994 the world was amazed to see our parliament burst into song that shook its very rafters when Nelson Mandela entered it. After all the bitter years of oppression and contestation, South Africa had emerged as a miracle nation and a role model to the world.

Today, sadly, parliament has just experienced its darkest moment: MPs and security personnel exchanged blows in full view of the nation and the world.

The reason is clear. The ANC is wrong in responding to the ConCourt decision in such an underwhelming and feint manner. Its attempt to push ahead as though the judgment was only a little slap on the wrist is dragging the whole nation into a moral and legal quagmire. Sane voices have spoken out but the ANC closed ranks and continues to show the middle finger to the judgment and everyone else.

 COPE’s response was to withdraw its participation in parliamentary matters while searching for a moral and legal way forward. The EFF chose a different approach in opposing the ANC and Mr Zuma. The remaining opposition parties have chosen their own way of responding to the crisis. We feel sorry for them as we do for the ruling party. They are trying to make something that is broken work without substantially fixing it or replacing it.

There are only losers all round while this impasse continues. Soon South Africa will be engulfed in pitched battles and worse inside and outside of the House that is not so honourable anymore. The ANC must see that the road it has chosen is a road to mayhem and chaos. Mandela held, late in life, that all conflicts led eventually to the negotiating table. In his view, it was better to take the shortcut to the table and achieve accommodation before too much damage was done. The philosophy he subscribed to allowed opposition politicians to oppose one another with dignity and humour and to find a common path without any enmity. Today, political parties are becoming fierce enemies of one another.

The ANC is too self-serving and too self-centred to produce a solution. The ball is now in the court of civil society to restore normality, integrity and sanity in our public life. What is happening in parliament is no circus. It is conflict on a battlefield with dangerous consequences for the whole nation.

COPE condemns the bullying tactics of the ruling party. Its attempt at forcing Mr Zuma down the throats of all of us is leading to a truly untenable situation. Parliament is a House of shame.

Issued by Dennis Bloem, COPE Spokesperson, 17 May 2016