EFF rejects the suspension call by the speaker of the national assembly

28 August 2014

Economic Freedom Fighters' Members of Parliament, all 25 who sit in the National Assembly have received letters from the Speaker of the National Assembly stating that they must explain why they should not be suspended. The letter of the Speaker effectively seeks to suspend the EFF from all proceedings and dealings of parliament for a period of 14 days without remuneration, pending investigation by the Powers and Privileges Committee as set out by Rule 191 to 194 of the National Assembly.

The letter states that the EFF MPs are to be suspended in terms of  Item 10 of the Schedule to the Rules of the National Assembly as well as section 12 of the Powers, Privileges and Immunities of Parliament and Provincial Legislatures Act, No 4 of 2004. The charges to be investigates and stated in the letter are that members of the EFF:

Improperly interfered with or impeded the exercise or performance by the House of its authority or functions;

improperly interfered with the performance by a member of his or her functions as a member; or

created a disturbance within the precinct of Parliament while the House was meeting

All members of the EFF in the National Assembly will be responding individually to the Speakers' letter and will accordingly ask an explanation of how in their individual capacity have they conducted themselves as stated above.

The review of events of the day will show that the Speaker of the House is actually responsible for collapsing the house and not the EFF. First, the Speaker did not indicate in name which members were to be thrown out. Two, she summoned the sergeant of arms to remove what she called "members of this house who are not serious". She then proceeded to adjourn the house, claiming that security has been called to remove members of the house who are not serious. Only then, after she declared the house adjourned did the EFF MPs launch into slogan after slogan demanding that President Zuma must Pay Back The Money.

We therefore maintain that no one amongst the EFF members of parliament acted in contravention of the rules. The Speaker is obliged to recognise an order from any member of the house and EFF members were well within their rights to call her to order as she was refusing to recognise them.

The EFF will also argue that Baleka Mbete is a generally conflicted person who only chairs parliament in the interest of her party. She has been generally bias against the opposition, particularly the EFF. Finally, it must be troubling to anyone who wants to act in the interest of democracy that a party voted into power by the general public must be removed from the house.

What the Speaker of Parliament is planning to do through her collective and generally misplaced punishment is to have a house without the EFF. The EFF is in parliament both by law and popular will. We are not employed of the Speaker, the ANC or other MPs, we are representatives of the people, voted by more than a million South Africans who want their voice to be heard through the EFF.

Furthermore, we have learned through reliable sources that in this period of suspension, the ANC  wants to bring President Jacob Zuma back for a session of questions in parliament. In addition, they also want to make sure that the Commander in Chief is not present during the sitting of the  ad hoc committee dealing with the Nkandla matter.

The EFF finds this as part of a long series of threats that have been posed by the ruling party aiming to beat us into submission. Baleka Mbete is joining the beating of war drums that started with the Secretary General Gwede Mantashe, followed by the MKMVA, as well as the Security Cluster. All these are cheer leaders of Jacob Zuma who are trying to hide him from answering the question that all South Africans want to hear; when is he paying back the money.

Finally, the EFF will be making an urgent court application to interdict all these attempts by the speaker to suspend democratically elected representatives of the people. It must be criminal to remove a whole party from parliament through suspension simply because they sought to hold the executive accountable.

Statement issued by the Economic Freedom Fighters, August 28 2014

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