Cape Town - The DA wants heads to roll for Thursday’s violent chaos in the National Assembly, and has laid four charges of assault against the police and a deputy minister.
But the ANC has dismissed this as another one of the party’s “publicity gimmicks and laughable stunts”.
DA chief whip John Steenhuisen said on Monday that three MPs had laid charges against the police for assault, and a fourth MP has laid charges against Deputy Minister for Higher Education and Training Mduduzi Manana, “after he man-handled DA MP Juanita Terblanche”, said Steenhuisen.
“Some of our members of Parliament were injured in the assault. It must be noted that the ANC in the House cheered and celebrated as the police assaulted our MPs. It is particularly shocking that the ANC spokesperson in Parliament, Moloto Mothapo, has called for DA MPs to be charged with assault,” said Steenhuisen.
He said the Powers, Privileges and Immunities of Parliament and Provincial Legislatures Act, 2004 “is very clear” on the circumstances under which the security services can enter Parliament.
“This is done strictly under only two circumstances: either ‘with the permission of the Speaker or the Chairperson’ (of the National Council of Provinces), or ‘when there is an immediate danger to the life or safety of any person or damage to any property’.
“This is a shameless attempt to shift blame for what happened. DA MPs were defending themselves and the democratic legitimacy of Parliament from an unconstitutional police intrusion into the National Assembly,” said Steenhuisen.
He said if anyone is to be arrested and charged, “it should be the police officers who attacked MPs and those responsible for authorising the police to enter the chamber of Parliament”.
He said he would also be calling on the Parliamentary Oversight Authority (POA) to conduct a full investigation into the circumstances and, where possible, “officials’ heads must roll”.
“In addition, there needs to be a multiparty committee established through the POA to deal specifically with the circumstances under which the security services are utilised in the parliamentary precinct,” said Steenhuisen.
Responding to the DA, Mothapo said the Office of the ANC chief whip was not “surprised by the DA’s opportunism and grandstanding”.
“The public has indeed become accustomed to such publicity gimmicks and laughable stunts by the DA. Witness accounts point us to the fact that the motive behind the rush to open cases by the DA MPs, the actual perpetrators of Thursday’s chaos, was to pre-empt the assault charges that police are likely to open against them,” said
Mothapo.
He said it was common knowledge “and a fact” that the DA MPs “charged at the police and attacked them when they entered the Chamber to discharge their lawful duties”.
Political Bureau