Weapons scare prompts MP searches
MPs will from now on be subjected to strict physical body searches and other stringent security checks before they can enter the National Assembly.
The tough measures are contained in the new Rules of the Assembly, adopted by the assembly on Thursday.
MPs were previously subjected only to metal detector searches at various buildings in the precinct.
The new security policy will also apply to members of the public visiting parliament. It follows serious allegations that some EFF MPs had entered the House carrying bricks and dangerous weapons last Tuesday when President Jacob Zuma was responding to questions.
This comes amid growing concerns that parliament is being militarised since the arrival of the EFF.
The new security regime was endorsed after months of discussion during rules committee meetings.
Speaker Baleka Mbete, chairwoman of the committee, told members that the measures were intended to prevent a bloodbath.
Mbete said anything could have happened during Zuma’s question and answer session last week, when EFF MPs clashed with parliamentary “bouncers” after trying to disrupt Zuma’s replies.
“A disaster might have happened and a person might have come into parliament with a gun. We need to look at how else we strengthen our parliament,” Mbete told the committee this week.
As one of the two heads of the institution, Mbete said, even she would not be above the new security checks.
“I don’t mind my bag going through the electronic [devices] so parliament can be sure that it’s not bringing anything dangerous.”
ANC chief whip Jackson Mthembu supported the new measures, saying the existing ones were inadequate. He said the scanners could not detect anything not made of steel. “They don’t pick up bricks.”
But the implementation of the rules could run into difficulty after members of the Parliamentary Protection Service and the parliamentary bouncers told security chiefs on Monday that deployment to reception areas and conducting body searches was not in their job description.