Keep police out:
THE Democratic Alliance ( DA) yesterday launched a court case to interdict the speaker of Parliament from calling in the police to remove MPs from the National Assembly.
The DA’s application to the Western Cape High Court was the second case responding to the drama during the state of the nation address by President Jacob Zuma on Thursday, in which the cellphone signal was jammed and Economic Freedom Fighters MPs were violently removed.
In a statement the DA’s James Selfe said the party wanted the court to interdict speaker Baleka Mbete and chairwoman of the National Council of Provinces Thandi Modise from calling in the police — until the court gave clarity on whether section 11 of the Powers, Privileges and Immunities of Parliaments and Provincial Legislatures Act was constitutional, and whether it applied to MPs.
Relied on by Ms Mbete and Ms Modise, it allows the speaker and chairman to order “arrests”. But Mr Selfe said the constitution did not allow MPs to be arrested for what they say in Parliament.
“We therefore contend that the part of section 11 of the act authorising arrest is not applicable to MPs”. If it did apply to MPs, it was unconstitutional, he said.
It was “never desirable” to approach the courts to rule on parliamentary matters, “but the extraordinary times we are in make it necessary for us to do so”.
The Western Cape High Court also heard — yesterday morning — an urgent application by media houses and the South African National Editor’s Forum to ensure there was no repeat of the signal jamming during the state of the nation debate, which began yesterday afternoon.
However, after an undertaking by the secretary of Parliament, Gengezi Mgidlana, the case was postponed until Thursday.
In his answering affidavit Mr Mgidlana said he was “outraged” by the jamming of the signal, but that it was a “one-off incident”.
The media representatives also wanted to ensure that the live broadcast feed, controlled by Parliament, would not be cut; and would show everything that was going on in the chamber — instead of, as happened on Thursday, the cameras resting on the speaker during the course of the fracas.
They argued that Parliament’s policy on filming and broadcasting was unconstitutional insofar as it required the audio and visual feed to not show “grave disturbances” or “unparliamentary behaviour”.
At a media briefing earlier in the day Ms Mbete gave the assurance that the government department responsible for placing a cellular network jammer in the chamber would explain why this was done.
“The device was placed there by a department of state. They will hold a press briefing to explain. We have received a report from them, but I have not read it yet.”
When Ms Mbete was asked to explain why she had called EFF leader Julius Malema a cockroach and how she could still be expected to preside over the party’s MPs in a fair and objective manner, Ms Modise’s deputy, Raseriti Tau, stepped in and said that the incident occurred outside Parliament and that the ANC should deal with it. With Paul Vecchiatto