Cape Town - ‘We apologise to viewers of the parliamentary channel for the temporary interruption. Due to a technical glitch, normal service will resume shortly.”
This was not the message viewers of the channel that some refer to as Comedy Central would have seen as they watched the debate on President Jacob Zuma’s State of the Nation address this week, but it could have been.
Instead of the farcical fare we have become accustomed to in the short life of the fifth Parliament, there was debate, details and the critique of policy and its implementation – actual substance.
Which is not to say MPs shunned the chance to score points, dissemble, grandstand and behave like the political animals they are.
But it was a quantum leap from the playground antics of recent months.
It was clear on Tuesday morning that Parliament’s presiding officers and the ANC were eager to put the controversy surrounding the chaotic State of the Nation address behind them.
Speaker Baleka Mbete acknowledged at a press conference that she had been given a report the day before the event alluding to the deployment of “certain equipment” in Parliament, but insisted she had not been aware of the specifics, particularly that cellphone reception would be blocked.
The measure had not been aimed at journalists, she said, although she declined to say whom it had been aimed at, before assuring the media the department responsible would explain itself in due course.
She rebuffed questions about her description last weekend of EFF leader Julius Malema as a “cockroach”, saying her remarks at an ANC event, in her capacity as its national chairwoman, should “remain in the political space”.
But she stayed away from the first two days of the debate – a tacit admission that her position as Speaker was untenable as long as the remarks stood – before apologising in a statement on Wednesday.
ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe was clearly also worried about what might transpire during the debate, given the heightened tensions in the wake of Mbete’s remarks, the cellphone jamming fiasco and the forced removal of EFF MPs by plainclothes police.
“We make a special plea to all members of Parliament, across (the) political divide, to focus on the real issues raised in the State of the Nation address,” Mantashe said in a statement shortly before the debate kicked off.
So it probably shouldn’t have come as a surprise that Arts and Culture Minister Nathi Mthethwa tried to set the tone by opening the debate with a lyrical speech about nation-building and harmony.
However, it served only as a curtain-raiser to a blistering attack from DA parliamentary leader Mmusi Maimane, who unleashed all his oratorical power to label Zuma a “broken man, presiding over a broken society”.
He said the president was prepared to destroy “every democratic institution” to protect himself, while “mini Zumas” all over the country followed his lead.
EFF leader Julius Malema, up next, also tore into Zuma, but focused mainly on continued inequality and poverty to accuse the ANC of betraying the ideals of the Freedom Charter.
ANC speakers, for the most part, stuck to the non-confrontational script, with heavyweights like Minister of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs Pravin Gordhan and Minister of Economic Development Ebrahim Patel seeking to counter opposition criticism with facts and figures.
Things almost spun out of control when Higher Education Minister Blade Nzimande, in the role of sweeper at the end of the second day of the debate, warned the EFF not to start something without knowing how it would end, saying they would “disappear”.
Enraged EFF MPs sprang to their feet, demanding that he withdraw the “threat”, while House chairman Cedric Frolick battled to restore order. Frolick was able to adjourn the sitting without violence when Nzimande explained he had not intended the remark as a threat.
It was a reminder of the hair-trigger fragility of the peace that had, mostly, characterised the two-day debate and a glimpse of how hard it will be to maintain it in the weeks to come.
Zuma, cast as the villain by the opposition, turned out to be the star of the show, responding to the debate – and even the personal attacks – with a conciliatory speech that was free of soaring rhetoric but, in its warmth, wit and sincerity, revealed why he was once championed as the people’s president.
It would be a relief in some ways to believe all is well again in Parliament, but it is not, even if this week showed what might be possible.
First, although she apologised and the EFF promptly accepted, Mbete’s “cockroach” comment will almost certainly come back to haunt her.
Her “two hats” defence – that her role as Speaker should be separated from her position as ANC chairwoman – has been fatally undermined by the obvious difficulty she has with following Zuma’s advice to MPs to remain calm in the face of provocation.
It is clear the EFF, and Malema in particular, have a unique talent for getting under her skin. That they might have a similar effect on plenty of other people is irrelevant – only Mbete and her fellow presiding officers are expected to demonstrate neutrality.
But even more problematic are the questions around the use of the cellphone jammer in Parliament.
If the measure was not directed at the media, the only conclusion left (nobody believes the no-fly zone explanation offered by the state security minister) is that Malema was right when he told journalists it was aimed at the EFF, to prevent its MPs from communicating by SMS on the floor of the National Assembly chamber in an attempt to prevent them from springing any surprises.
And if Mbete was unaware of the intention to block the signal, then she has admitted to allowing an intelligence operation to go unsupervised, but with her knowledge, within the parliamentary precinct, stomping on the constitution in doing so.
That would be a serious abdication of her responsibilities as Speaker.
Only a thorough and transparent inquiry, by Parliament and not the one promised by the executive, would set it right.
Freedom Front Plus MP Pieter Groenewald reminded her on Thursday that she had promised to institute a proper investigation, while the DA’s David Maynier called for the setting up of an ad hoc committee to carry it out.
It is clear the opposition will not let this one go, meaning all the ANC’s attempts to put scandals behind it will have been in vain.
The calm this week was but a temporary lull in hostilities.
Normal service will resume shortly.
Political Bureau