Parliament’s not a tavern

DIGNITY and respect go hand in hand – but it’s also true that if you lose the one, you invariably lose the other.

This has proved to be especially true of Parliament.

Ever since the EFF first disrupted President Jacob Zuma’s State of the Nation Address two years ago, and were ejected from the National Assembly by a security contingent, the dignity of Parliament has been impaired with sad regularity.

At the beginning of the year, the EFF again disrupted the address. And much more recently, Andile Mngxitama of the Black First Land First movement almost came to blows with Yunus Carrim, the co-chairperson of a joint sitting of the parliamentary committee of trade and industry and the committee of finance.

Chaos again broke out in the National Assembly on Wednesday when Sifiso Mtsweni, the newly-appointed chairperson of the National Youth Development Agency, refused to leave the public gallery when instructed to do so.

He had been accused of making threatening, slitting-the-throat gestures at opposition MPS.

Natasha Louw, an EFF MP, told presiding officer Nomalungelo Gina that if EFF members had been involved, the protection officers would have forcibly thrown them out. She was probably right. Another EFF MP, Mmabatho Mokause, described Mtsweni as a “hooligan” and warned that if parliamentary security did not remove him, the EFF would.

Drastic action needs to be taken to ensure that MPs, as well as visitors, respect the dignity of Parliament.

Officials should not have to warn people in the gallery, as Gina had been forced to do, not to clap hands, make threatening gestures, or try to participate in debates.

We suggest that two things need to be done: Mtsweni’s behaviour should be investigated immediately – and if the allegations against him are true, moves should be set in motion to remove him as head of the youth agency.

Those who do not know how to behave should be hit where it hurts most – in their pockets.

The notion of permanent expulsion from Parliament should also be investigated.

If this is the best way to stop some MPs and visitors from treating our Parliament like a cheap bar in a dodgy part of town, then so be it.