Parliament - It had the potential to explode into yet more scenes of chaos in the House, but firm presiding during the debate on a DA motion for a special parliamentary committee to impeach President Jacob Zuma ensured calm amid biting political barbs.
It was a tricky afternoon on Tuesday as House chairman Cedric Frolick’s first order was to rule out of order an 11th hour bid by Justice Minister Michael Masutha to stop the debate related to the controversial departure of Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir amid court hearings over his arrest on International Criminal Court warrants for genocide and war crimes.
Masutha argued the matter was still before the courts as the government is appealing; the House could not discuss a matter before the courts, in possible contraventions of its rules.
But given that Speaker Baleka Mbete recently dismissed that very argument when the EFF sought to stop the debate on the Nkandla ad hoc committee report absolving Zuma from repaying anything of the R215 million taxpayer-funded security upgrades – the report was adopted on the back of ANC numbers in the House – the justice minister had little ground to stand on.
Frolick said the debate would go ahead: “We are not the court”.
So DA leader Mmusi Maimane emotionally appealed across the floor to support the vote for the establishment of a committee to investigate Zuma’s impeachment: “So join us, Honourable Members. Don’t let this constitutional crisis go to waste. Vote… to impeach this broken man, President Jacob Zuma”.
Later DA MP James Selfe said on the facts it was clear Zuma failed to uphold the rule of law and Constitution as “the president and the Cabinet deliberately decided to break the law”, according to court documents.
IFP MP Albert Mncwango said the debate was correctly held on the first day of spring. “South Africa is indeed in need of a thorough spring clean,” he said adding the al-Bashir saga showed the government and its president “cannot be trusted”.
In a surprise move the EFF supported the DA motion, but not over the al-Bashir saga. “The president should be thrown into the dustbin, because he was an electoral disaster,” said EFF MP Godrich Gardee, citing the Nkandla saga, the 2013 police killings of 34 Marikana miners and the country’s slow economic growth. “Makahambe uZuma. He must just go. Hy moet loop,” he said.
That’s not to say there were were no hot moments, which in numerous previous sittings have derailed presiding officers amid accusations of bias, inconsistent application of the rules and selective hearing.
ANC MP Jackson Mthembu accused the DA of “abusing” the president by calling him a broken man. “Honourable Maimane and the DA... You are trying to outdo the EFF in the vile insults stakes.
“You (the DA and EFF) are joined at the hips… for regime change. You want the president to be removed by foul means… You were born out of hatred for the ANC.”
Throughout Mthembu’s speech the EFF raised a flurry of points of order. Frolick would have none of it. Neither did he indulge booing from ANC benches, buoyed by an acerbic speech by Deputy Justice Minister John Jeffery, who told off the DA for not knowing the Constitution.
“Honourable Maimane is a hollow man presiding over a hollow party.” Frolick called for order: “Let’s not boo in the House. That’s unparliamentary.”
Predictably, due to the ANC numbers in the House, the DA motion was defeated 211 against, 100 for and 17 abstentions.
Political Bureau