Babalo Ndenze
Political Bureau
TEMPERS flared and voices were raised at yesterday’s EFF disciplinary hearing, where the party’s 20 s were found guilty of misconduct for the chaotic National Assembly sitting in August.
The hearing drew nearer to a close yesterday as the two EFF MPs who were present walked out in protest just before initiator Randall van Voore wrapped up his closing arguments before the powers and privileges committee.
Van Voore said the 20 MPs acted in contravention of Section13(c) of the Powers, Privileges and Immunities of Parliament and Provincial Legislatures Act of 2004, as well as the rules of Parliament.
“There can be little doubt that the affected honourable members knew what they were required to do and deliberately and intentionally refused to comply with the Speaker’s instructions,” said Van Voore.
Before reaching his conclusion, Van Voore told the committee that what matters in a matter like this “are the facts”.
“The facts are what they are. Some of those facts might be inconvenient. Some of those facts might be thought to point in one way, others of those facts might be thought to point in another way. It is the marshalling of those facts that you and your committee are called upon to consider to arrive at a sensible, fair, rational and reasonable outcome,” said Van Voore.
It will now be up to the committee to decide on a suitable punishment for the EFF MPs after considering the evidence presented by Van Voore. Van Voore said the facts from the footage and evidence presented “are rather straightforward”.
A visibly irritated Mncedisi Filtane of the UDM interjected during Van Voore’s presentation. “I am becoming more and more uneasy with the approach being adopted by our initiator. He said he’s going to talk facts, now he is digressing. He should just tell us, what is his job? Isn’t it true that his job is to say ABC happened like this and that? Now why is he trying to come up with all sorts of persuasive language. This is not what we came here for. He’s not persuading the house. This is not on,” said Filtane with his voice raised. Filtane asked Van Voore whether he is a prosecutor or an “evidence leader”. Before walking out the hearing, the EFF’s Diliza Twala voiced his concerns about concluding without calling in outstanding witnesses.
“I think we are all eager to get to finality on this matter. But where we are seated talk is being made of a report being delivered without certain witnesses haven’t gone through this process. And that for us is problematic. How do you then arrive at a conclusion without having heard all the evidence?” asked Twala. State Security Minister David Mahlobo and his telecommunications and postal services counterpart Siyabonga Cwele are yet to appear before the committee because they’ve been out of the country. The committee resolved that committee chairman Lemias Mashile will engage with the two ministers and if they’re available this week they will come before the committee.