Clowns take stage

EPUTY President Cyril Ramaphosa has concluded a deal to end the mayhem in Parliament, but this week anarchy reemerged in the Gauteng legislature. The tactic of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) appears to be designed to make the legislature ungovernable, with insults hurled across the floor at the ruling party replacing any attempt at rational debate. It is not the first time that the EFF has brought the provincial chamber to a halt, and unless there is a Ramaphosa-like intervention in Gauteng, more disrupted proceedings can be expected. Ramaphosa has brought to a halt the scandalous scenes in Parliament by brokering a deal in terms of which he and leaders of opposition parties will form a committee to restore order in the House.

Not so in Gauteng, however, where the EFF resorted to its gumboot tactics, choosing to insult ANC members and engage in shouting matches. As a result, and not for the first time, no meaningful business was conducted in the legislature. Those members of the public who silently cheer the EFF on for pulling at the tail of the ANC should choose their champions more carefully.

Rather than addressing the business of running the province, the EFF seeks publicity by turning the legislature into a circus.

D