Johannesburg - The banning of EFF overalls in Parliament is back on the agenda of the House after MPs agreed to expedite the process of implementing all key rules.
Chairman of the subcommittee on rules Richard Mdakane warned on Thursday that law advisers in Parliament were on hand to defend the new rules if the EFF or any party took them to court.
The subcommittee was meeting on Thursday to finalise a raft of new rules that have been outstanding for several months.
Certain sections of the rules were implemented last week when Parliament’s protection officers ejected EFF leader Julius Malema for insulting Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa.
Mdakane said the issue of an acceptable dress code in Parliament had to be finalised.
Other parties also agreed that this has been a long-standing issue on the agenda of Parliament.
Mdakane said they could no longer continue working on the new rules and wanted an end to the process.
He said he had not seen any party rejecting the new rules, including the dress code, except for the EFF.
He believed the majority of parties in Parliament were in sync in the banning of overalls.
“There is a senior advocate here, he must go and defend us. We can’t be afraid to take decisions because we will be taken to court,” Mdakane said.
He said the rules committee has been waiting for a year for the conclusion of the new rules, including the dress code.
ANC MP Juli Kilian said there should be no ambiguity of what was acceptable in Parliament and not acceptable.
“When people attend business meetings and conferences, they know what business attire is. It is only when they come to Parliament that they do not know what is a formal dress code,” she said.
Natasha Mazzone of the DA said they should be cautious and not be over-restrictive on the dress code.
However, parties agreed that clothing like traditional attire was acceptable in the business of Parliament.
It was the EFF overalls that remained the key concern of MPs
.
Mdakane said in past engagements with the chief whips of other parties, most of the proposals, including the dress code, had been agreed on.
He said it was a matter of polishing the language of the rules that needed to be done.
However, the overalls have been listed as some of the things that did not meet the required standards of formal clothing in Parliament.
In the past, the EFF has threatened to take Parliament to court if it banned overalls.
However, Mdakane warned that this would be defended in court by the institution.
He said MPs must indicate what image they want to portray outside if they wore informal clothes, including overalls, in the chamber.
The Star