The National Assembly (NA) adopted two reports from the Powers and Privileges Committee and another three reports from the Joint Committee on Ethics and Members Interest at its plenary sitting yesterday.

One of the Powers and Privileges Committee reports concerned a recommendation to suspend and sanction one month’s salary of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) Members of Parliament (MP) for disrupting Minister of Public Enterprise, Mr Pravin Gordon, as he delivered his Budget Vote Speech on 11 July 2019.

During the Department of Public Enterprises’ Budget Vote debate in July 2019, 16 EFF MPs disrupted and prevented Minister Gordon from delivering his budget speech. EFF MPs repeatedly raised points of order, which the presiding officer, NA House Chairperson Ms Grace Boroto, ruled as invalid.

The EFF MPs persisted in raising the same points of order and stood up and crossed the floor to proceed towards the Minister. Ms Boroto requested the Parliamentary Protection Services to remove EFF MPs, in accordance with the NA Rule 73(2).

On 11 March 2020, the Powers and Privileges Committee met to deliberate and considered, amongst other things, the allegations relating to the 11 July 2019 incident. In considering the day’s activities, the committee reflected on the Minutes of Proceedings, listened to the unrevised Hansard and viewed the video footage of the incident. The committee resolved that the affected members be charged for constituting contempt of Parliament.

The outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent State of National Disaster delayed the committee’s work, as proceedings resumed again from November 2020.

Some of the charges against the EFF MPs were that of conduct constituting contempt of Parliament by:

• persisting with points of order after the presiding officer’s final and binding ruling;
• by crossing the floor of the House in front of the benches during the proceedings;
• deliberately engaging in conduct that created severe disorder or disruption in the House;
• repeatedly undermining the authority of the presiding officer; refusing to obey rulings of the presiding officer; disrespecting and interrupting the presiding officer whilst she was addressing the House;
• Intervening, preventing, obstructing other members’ removal from the Chamber when the presiding officer ordered their removal.

Having considered all mitigating facts and in light of its findings of guilt against the 16 members, the committee recommended that the NA imposed the following sanctions:

• Suspension of Mr Mataise and Ms Sonti as repeat offenders of contempt of Parliament, without remuneration for a period not exceeding 30 days, whether or not the House or any of its committees is scheduled to meet during that period, be imposed as set out in section12(g) of the Act;
• Fine not exceeding one month’s salary and allowances payable to each of the 14 members under the Remuneration of Public Officer Bearers Act,1998.

The second Powers and Privileges Committee report concerned the allegations of conduct constituting contempt of Parliament by members of the EFF during the State of the Nation Address (SONA) on 13 February 2020.

On 14 February 2020, the former Speaker of the National Assembly, Ms Thandi Modise, and the Chairperson of the National Council of Provinces, Mr Amos Masondo, referred “Allegations of conduct constituting contempt of Parliament by members of the EFF during the Joint Sitting on Thursday, 13 February 2020” to the Powers and Privileges Committee.

In processing the incident, committee Members observed the video footage of the incident and then deliberated on it. The committee observed that members of the EFF raised several points of order objecting to the presence of former President FW de Klerk in the public gallery and asked that he be requested to leave the Chamber. They raised further points of order objecting to the presence of Minister Gordhan.

In trying to restore the decorum of the House, the Presiding Officers repeatedly ruled the points of order to be invalid. Still, the members persisted in raising the same points of order.

Having deliberated on the findings, the committee recommended that the referral of the SONA incident of 13 February 2020 did not have a reasonable prospect of success and, therefore, should not proceed.

Lastly, the committee recommended that given the inadequacy of the Joint Rules to deal with challenges experienced during the Joint Sitting of 13 February 2020, a process to update the Joint Rules should be embarked upon as a matter of urgency.

In the same sitting, Joint Committee on Ethics and Members’ Interests committee reports were considered and adopted. The adopted reports included the 2019 and 2020 Register of Members’ Interests: Late and Non-Disclosures and the complaint against African National Congress Member of Parliament, Mr Faiez Jacobs, for alleged code breach.

The Code of Ethical Conduct and Disclosure of Members’ Interests prescribes that Members of Parliament must disclose their registrable interests annually at a time determined by the Joint Committee on Ethics. The code further provides that a “member breaches the code if it contravenes or fails to comply with the requirements of the provisions for disclosing interests”.

In 2019, 17 Members of Parliament failed or neglected to submit their disclosure of financial and registrable interests by the due date, whilst in 2020 there were eight members. The committee recommended different penalties to the members who breached the code, including a reprimand in the House or a fine not exceeding the value of 30 days’ salary.

The committee considered a complaint against Mr Faiez Jacobs, African National Congress MP, on an alleged breach of the code of ethics for referring to a ward councillor Mr Angus McKenzie as “a House nigger” in a community chat WhatsApp group last year.

In processing the complaint, the committee considered the origin of the term and found it dehumanising, derogatory and used during the slave era to refer to a black person as subservient. The Joint Committee found Mr Jacobs guilty and ordered him to issue a public apology in Parliament.

The National Assembly adopted all the reports with their recommendations.

Source: Government of South Africa