Parliament - The ANC vowed on Wednesday to ban the EFF from wearing workers' garb in Parliament, saying this was not only indecorous but their hard hats could be used as dangerous projectiles.
“They are dangerous, they are weapons,” African National Congress deputy Chief Whip Doris Dlakude told a multi-party sub-committee making proposals for the revision of parliamentary rules.
It adopted a proposal, despite bitter objection from Economic Freedom Fighters Chief Whip Floyd Shivambu, to prohibit the red workers' overalls and pinafores EFF MPs have worn in the House along with shorts, jeans, and takkies.
The proposals would be forwarded to the full rules committee for adoption in coming weeks.
ANC MP Nyami Booi rejected the EFF's argument that they were given a mandate by some 1.5 million voters to wear clothes representing the working class in the legislature.
He said his mother had been a domestic worker, but she was firmly against the left-wing party's female members coming to the National Assembly in aprons.
“We are going to use our majority to vote against that,” he said.
Shivambu warned that the EFF would defy the ban, and challenge it in court if necessary.
“Let's not go there because we are going to continue wearing overalls in Parliament. You cannot pass a rule that says you cannot in Parliament wear clothes that are worn by the working class. I think you are steering into dangerous territory,” Shivambu said.
“If we do not find agreement here, we will submit it to a different process.”
He told Sapa the party planned to attend the opening of Parliament in a fortnight in red overalls and domestic workers' attire.
Sub-committee chairman Richard Mdakane sought to give assurances that the dress code was not aimed specifically at the EFF because it had been in the pipeline since early 2013, before the party's formation.
Dlakude undermined this, telling the meeting: “The real reason that we deal with this issue of dress code is that what is happening in this new Parliament never happened... Even criminals, murderers, rapists, when they appear in court they are well dressed.”
Mdakane said the dress rules would be slotted into the first nine chapters of the proposed revised rules to be adopted soon, before MPs deal with the rest of the rule book.
Shivambu said he found this illogical and suspect.
“They are hurrying for something,” he said.
In the meeting, Shivambu argued, seemingly in vain, for the rules on secret ballots to be rewritten to allow MPs to vote against their party lines on legislation and in matters such as the impeachment of the president.
Dlakude countered that ANC MPs were not elected as individuals but as members of the ruling party and therefore had an obligation to toe the line.
As the rules stand, the only time when a secret ballot is allowed is when MPs elect the president.
The ANC are asking for the rules on declarations in the National Assembly, which currently gives each party an equal three minutes, to be changed in accordance with their number of seats.
“We need some additional time as a ruling party to respond. As a ruling party we need to respond to these things because some of them will just say things that are not there.”
The proposals were amended to state that each party's declaration time should be decided at the beginning of each new Parliament, in other words after every general election.
Shivambu again strongly objected, noting that speaking time during debates was already allocated according to parties' vote share.
Sapa