Cape Town - The ANC has accused Western Cape Legislature Deputy Speaker Piet Pretorius of bias and threatened to litigate against him and Speaker Richard Majola.
Pretorius made a ruling last week against ANC MPL Max Ozinsky, ordering him to withdraw his remark “she wanted to kill us” during a debate on May 9.
Ozinsky was referring to Helen Suzman and Umkhonto we Sizwe soldiers.
Premier Helen Zille, who raised a point of order with Pretorius, came to the defence of Pretorius on Tuesday and said Ozinsky’s remark was clearly unparliamentary.
Zille said the ANC’s statements were “far from the truth”.
“Deputy Speaker Pretorius was correct in his ruling and he was very meticulous. He is the most unbiased person I know,” she said.
Ozinsky has refused to retract his statement.
All the ANC MPLs walked out of the sitting last week to show their opposition to Pretorius’s ruling.
ANC chief whip Pierre Uys said on Tuesday that the ruling “was just another example of how the presiding officers are biased against the ANC and (how) the DA was closing democratic debate”.
“We wrote to the Speaker and requested a meeting, but parallel to this we are considering legal action against the two presiding officers (Pretorius and Majola). It cannot continue like this,” he said.
He said ANC MPLs felt DA members were allowed to say anything during sittings while ANC members were called to order when they did the same.
Pretorius said he was offended by the ANC’s statement that he was biased but that he did not want to get into a “public spat” with the party.
“It was no out-of-the-ordinary ruling. I make these rulings on a regular basis,” he said, adding: “My ruling had nothing to do with the Know Your DA campaign and its use of Helen Suzman.”
Ozinsky said his right to freedom of speech was denied.
“I never insulted Helen Suzman. I just put the facts on the table,” he said.
Legislature spokesman Matthys Odendal said meetings with all the parties and Pretorius would be held to discuss the issues.
Cape Times