The EFF’s threat to disrupt President Zuma’s State of the Nation Address is populism at its worst, says George Devenish.
Pretoria - Our Constitution, with its entrenched Bill of Rights, provides for a system of multiparty democracy. The Constitution provides for, inter alia, the rights of assembly, protest, freedom of expression and political rights involving belonging to and promoting political parties and causes. However, all these rights are not absolute and are subject to reasonable limitation. Individuals and political parties – in advancing political causes and agendas – are bound to act in accordance with the law and the Constitution.
Political protest by its very nature must be robust to be effective. Unfortunately, service delivery protests have become increasingly violent. Such protest is unlawful and unconstitutional.
It cannot be justified in a democratic state and must be condemned in an unqualified way and dealt with in accordance with our criminal law.
However aggrieved, people are not entitled to take the law into their own hands and cause mayhem, which threatens the foundations of a democratic state.
Many informed and thinking South Africans have reservations about the puerile conduct of the members of the EFF in Parliament and the pandemonium they have caused.
However, they should not be punished in a manner that makes inroads in the privilege of free speech accorded to MPs, which is essential for democratic discourse in Parliament. But the ANC leadership and the Speaker over reacted and played into the hands of the EFF, making it impossible for other parties in Parliament to fulfil their oversight role.
The EFF is now threatening to disrupt the State of the Nation Address by the president because they cannot get their way in relation to a special session of Parliament that they have requested.
They are determined to try to make the kind of spectacle that occurred in Parliament during the president’s question time when they disrupted the proceedings with their demand of “Pay back the money”.
It is clear that they have no respect for the president or the office of the president. It is essential that we retain a respect for the office of the president.
In Parliament and in society there are rules of decorum and conventions in relation to political and social behaviour the EFF does not wish to comply with.
Their conduct is highly irresponsible in encouraging the poor and unemployed to invade so-called unoccupied land because they are told that “they are entitled to it”. The conduct of the EFF and its leadership are politically and legally questionable.
They appear to be trying to precipitate unrest and insurrection.
They are not engaging in a rational and intelligent discourse and seek the public limelight by creating a spectacle and pandemonium.
This is populism at its worst.
Furthermore, when politicians, whoever they are, state that they wish to make a province ungovernable, as ANC politicians in the Western Cape have done in the past, they are embarking on potentially subversive and seditious conduct. This behaviour, like the conduct of the EFF, and the so-called “poo wars”, cannot be condoned in a democracy.
Democracy provides for liberty and not licence to act in a manner that threatens the rights of law abiding citizens and destroys the prospects of an intelligent and robust discourse on all political issues.
South Africans, having crafted an exemplary Constitution, need to take action against the predations of those in the body politic, who are politically unscrupulous. The government must be rendered accountable in a robust but responsible manner, so that poverty, unemployment and economic inequality can be addressed.
The theatrical actions and threats of disruption of the State of Nation Address of the President and instigating the poor to invade unoccupied land are questionable and counter-productive.
We need become a mature democracy which involves rational discourse on political and economic issues. The conduct of the EFF and its leaders are inhibiting this, undermining the Constitution and its values for cheap political gain. The cost of liberty is eternal vigilance.
* George Devenish is professor emeritus at UKZN and one of the jurists who assisted in drafting the Interim Constitution in 1993.
** The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Independent Media.
Pretoria News