Mngxitama resists calls to apologise to Parliament
BLACK First Land First leader Andile Mngxitama remains defiant over threats to tighten rules for people visiting Parliament and demands for him to apologise for disrupting a committee meeting.
Mngxitama said yesterday he did not care what Parliament said and warned he would return to the institution to make presentations.
Parties agreed at the meeting of the programming committee yesterday that the behaviour of Mngxitama was unacceptable and that more measures should be put in place to guard against such disruptions.
Deputy Speaker Lechesa Tsenoli called on the Black First Land First leader to apologise to Parliament for his conduct.
But Mngxitama said he would not apologise and that the ANC should act against the presiding officers.
“Nobody has asked for our version on the day. The basic thing is if there was a complaint you have to ask for our version of events,” said Mngxitama.
Black First Land First would not “respond to rubbish, to the incompetence of Parliament”, he said.
Mngxitama accused the presiding officers of failing to do their work.
He warned that he would return to Parliament, but did not say when.
“That Parliament is not theirs. We will still come back,” he said.
At the meeting of the programming committee, ANC chief whip Jackson Mthembu called for criminal charges to be instituted against Mngxitama and Black First Land First members.
“Here we have a criminal element creeping in, where MPs were threatened.
“We must look at whether we need to look at the criminal prescripts where people are charged,” Mthembu said.
DA chief whip John Steenhuisen accused Mngxitama of seeking media attention over his conduct last week.
He said Parliament needed to set tighter rules for visitors on how to behave when they were in the chamber.
He said Mngxitama was mischievous because he was a former MP and knew the rules of Parliament.
MPs said the rules needed to tightened to prevent similar behaviour by people when they came to Parliament.