Parliamentary report at odds with footage of scuffle
Draft document fails to mention DA or answer key questions
ARLIAMENT’S draft report on riot police action in the House says Sergeant-at-Arms Regina Mohlomi called in the SAPS.
The document focuses on EFF MPs’ conduct, although it was DA parliamentarians who scuffled with the police.
“The sergeant-at-arms, noting that the security service personnel were ready outside the chamber to provide assistance, bowed to the presiding officer and called the (SAPS) into the chamber,” states the draft report by the parliamentary administration seen by The Star.
Towards the end of the sitting on November 13, riot police entered the House to remove an EFF MP after she was ordered to leave for calling President Jacob Zuma a “thief ”. At least four DA MPs have laid criminal charges against the SAPS after they were injured in scuffles with police officers when they tried to intervene.
While Parliament’s draft document repeatedly notes the behaviour of some EFF MPs – “Protection services staff were warned by several members of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) not to touch the member at the podium” and “(EFF MPs) instructed the staff to touch the member” – it fails to mention the scuffles and does not identify the DA as being involved.
“Certain members attempted to pull back police officers,
Pas they were exiting the chamber,” says the report.
The account of the police action stands in contrast to the visuals on public record showing several officers in specialised black body armour at the opposition MPs’ benches.
Witness accounts have highlighted that the officers in the chamber wore the insignia of the public order police, popularly known as the riot police, who entered while the presiding officer was in the chair.
The key question about who allowed police to be present in the parliamentary corridors alongside the chamber in the first place is not answered in the report.
The 2004 Powers, Privileges and Immunities of Parliament and Provincial Legislatures Act, states members of the security service may enter the parliamentary precinct “only with the permission and under the authority of the Speaker or Chairperson (of the National Council of Provinces)”.
Only in cases of “immediate danger to the life or safety of any person or damage to any property” does the act allow security services action without prior permission.
In recent weeks, the SAPS regularly turned a committee room on the third floor into its operations centre at every sitting of the House.
Parliament has its own protection services, which co-ordinate with the police, but the draft report’s description of how three parliamentary protection services staff were unable to evict the EFF MP raises serious questions.
The report, which took two weeks to compile, was discussed at yesterday’s meeting of the parliamentary oversight authority (POA), an inhouse policy and political structure, to which opposition parties had referred the incident and the cutting of the parliamentary feed earlier this month.
Insiders told The Star that Speaker Baleka Mbete did not give the requested assurances riot police would not be called in again during yesterday’s session.
Discussions were described as failing to resolve anything – and it was all postponed until next year.
Parliament said yesterday that the POA heard how “during the scuffle which followed, two members of the police were assaulted. Two cases of assault were opened by the police”.
Parliament said the feed was cut and resumed because the House was suspended and restarted in line with its policy on filming and broadcasting.
The policy provides for “the continuation of broadcasts during continued incidents of grave disorder or unparliamentary behaviour… for as long as proceedings continue”.
It remains unclear when exactly the House was suspended because the police entered the chamber as the presiding officer, House chairman Cedric Frolick, was in the chair. According to parliamentary tradition, the House is adjourned only when the Speaker’s chair is empty and the mace removed.