MBOMBELA – Recently legislature sittings have being marked by drama and controversy as DA members are constantly being called to order and even chased out. The ANC is accusing the DA of turning the house into a “soapie” while the DA says the Speaker is not observing the rules of the house.
The most recent outburst was on Thursday when DA MPL Ms Jane Sithole was ordered to leave, only two days after the speaker Ms Thandi Shongwe finally apologised to her for calling a dress she had worn during a sitting in March, too revealing. Sithole reacted strongly, saying she had no idea why she had been ordered to leave and accused Shongwe of having “an axe to grind with her”.
Yesterday, the ANC Office of the Chief Whip in the provincial legislature in turn condemned the DA’s conduct on Thursday in a strongly worded statement. “We can’t even dignify the attention-seeking conduct of Sithole who wants to turn the house into a soapie where all attention should be on her performances as a drama queen at the expense of our core mandate as legislature,” chief whip Mr Johanne Mkhatshwa said.
“For once and for all we seek to expose the DA’s strategy for what it is, because the DA has been keen to cause self-inflicted expulsions in the house so that they (can) run like little babies to the media to present themselves as victims of the Speaker and make veiled accusations that they are being targeted because of their political views.”
MPLs were discussing land reform during the tabling of the department of agriculture’s budget for 2015/16 on Thursday when Sithole was ordered to leave.
She said she had no idea why. Coincidentally, Thursday was also the first sitting Shongwe had attended since reprimanding Sithole on her dress.
Two days earlier, she had apologised for her ruling in March that a dress Sithole had been wearing during a sitting was too revealing.
‘Sex-worker dress’ further condoned by DA
MPL Mr Victor Windvoël was also requested by the Speaker to withdraw his remarks, which he did. He had initially objected to the dress, which led to the DA caucus walking out of the house and staging a protest against the ruling in April.
Complaints seem to fall on deaf ears
“I don’t know how to explain this one. During a sitting, someone may be unruly, and then she gives them a few warnings. I can’t even remember what I said. She didn’t say I must withdraw it or that I did something wrong. She really needs to give me reasons. She warned Mr Anthony Benadie a number of times without kicking him out. But she didn’t give me a single warning.
“If she had said, ‘I warned you and you carried on’, that is the normal procedure of the house.
“But this was not warranted. If a person is grossly misbehaving and won’t settle down, kicking them out is the last resort. I don’t know if she is bitter because she had to apologise in public and admit that her conduct was unparliamentary,” Sithole said.
However, Mkhatshwa said Sithole was correctly ordered to leave the house “for her unwarranted heckling and unparliamentary conduct on that day as she tried in vain to pledge solidarity with Benadie by ‘throwing tantrums to the Speaker’.”
Mkhatshwa maintains that the Speaker’s rulings are final in the house as prescribed in the adopted rules of the legislature. “We fully stand by the Speaker’s ruling and further call for disciplinary action to be taken against Sithole for even resisting lawful instruction from the Speaker and sergeant at arms to leave the house – an act that undermines dignity and the decorum of the house in front of invited dignitaries.”
He added that his own speech had been disrupted by the opposition party when he stated that land claims and progress towards land redistribution were frustrated by the same beneficiaries of the 1913 Land Act.
“The ANC in the legislature has observed with no surprise that generally the DA is always fond of disrupting the sittings of the house, undermining the authority of the Speaker and stalling any decent discussions whenever a matter touches on land distribution, destruction of apartheid, education and calls to address transformation of the agriculture sector.
“We have also noted for some time that generally there is increasingly high levels of absenteeism and laziness by the DA MPLs in the work of the legislature. When debates become too sophisticated for them or once their allocated time to speak is exhausted, Benadie will always lead a tirade of heckling, call frivolous points of order, make unparliamentary gestures and converse loudly in anticipation of the Speaker ordering him out of the house as the rules require.”
The Mpumalanga Legislature’s rules and orders give the Speaker the power to unilaterally eject an MPL from the house if the presiding officer is of the opinion that a member is deliberately contravening a provision of the rules, the Constitution or any other law, is in contempt of the legislature, disregarding the authority of the presiding officer or grossly disorderly.
The DA has said it intends to seek legal advice on the fact that she has the power to unilaterally eject someone from the house.
