House of Pandemonium: can parliament ever reclaim its dignity and proper function?

Watching the awful scenes during President Cyril Ramaphosa’s budget speech in Parliament this week, one was left wondering whether the institution can ever play its role to unite the country, which is so essential if South Africa is to have a brighter future. The racist hatred spewed by the EFF members, which has almost become their standard fare, should have no place in the people’s house. Even more concerning is that the vitriol earned no punishment or condemnation from the chair.

Parliament is a sacred place. It is a repository of people’s aspirations, their dreams and democratic ideals. Too many sacrifices were made to get us there. One shouldn’t go to parliament to holler and swear and make a fool of oneself, just as one should not descend on a church, a mosque or a synagogue to swear at the deity.

Jacob Zuma has ripped through parliament like a hurricane, leaving its occupants seemingly confused and disoriented. Not everybody, it seems, is pleased to see the back of him. The EFF is finding it hard to adjust to life after Zuma. Its members thrived in the turmoil, and we egged them on. We didn’t mind when they turned on Zuma, in the process turning parliament into a circus, a laughing stock. Anything to rattle Zuma, to get under his skin, was acceptable. We badly wanted him out by any means necessary.

Zuma is gone now, but the destruction and bad habits he spawned persist. Ramaphosa is a different kind of politician. He smiles a lot. He’s not a bruiser. He prefers to charm his way out of an argument.

The EFFers have yet to get the measure of him. He won’t take the bait to join them in the gutter. On the day Ramaphosa was elected president, the EFF walked out of parliament for no apparent reason other than to rain on his parade. But Julius Malema seemed to warm to him in the aftermath of his inaugural state of the nation address. Ramaphosa was smothering him with love. There was even talk of the two going to Marikana together to help Ramaphosa get that monkey off his back.

And when the ANC lined up behind an EFF resolution to amend the constitution to allow for the expropriation of land without compensation, a union seemed possible. The red berets loved it. They were setting the agenda. Some ANC MPs even seemed to defer to Malema during the debate on the land question. There was little to choose from between the two parties. They spoke the same language.

With next year’s elections looming, however, there’s now a tug of war over who should take credit for the passage of the resolution. Floyd Shivambu reminded Ramaphosa a few weeks ago that the resolution was an EFF baby. It introduced the bill; the ANC could not now try to take credit.

Probably to mollify Shivambu, Ramaphosa resorted to speaking in Tsonga. The EFF, he said, had tried to steal a march on the ANC. On realising that the ANC had passed a resolution to expropriate land without compensation at its conference at Nasrec, the EFF “had rushed to parliament” with a bill to that effect. Shivambu obviously didn’t buy that explanation. It’s a fierce battle that will rage throughout the campaign for next year’s election.

The ANC has the numbers; it can make things happen. The EFF can only holler. Its frustration showed this week. EFF MPswaited until Malema had spoken before they started chanting their mantra about land. They looked ridiculous. Maybe they’ve decided being spoilsports is an easier route to power. Such behaviour wouldn’t be tolerable in a barroom.

But even more disturbing is Malema’s defiant call for people to invade unoccupied land. Does he not understand that as a lawmaker he should not be encouraging people to break the law? Or is the lure of votes too enticing for him to care about such niceties? Earlier he had complained about the Hawks and Special Investigating Unit’s inability to catch criminals. Does he want to pick and choose which laws should be obeyed?

But the mess in parliament lies squarely at the door of the ANC. The EFF is merely taking advantage of the shambles.

Parliament’s primary responsibility is to hold the executive accountable. But in its desperate effort to protect Zuma, the governing party reduced parliament to yet another of its tools, to do its bidding. In other words, parliament became accountable to it. Baleka Mbete, the party’s chairwoman, became speaker with a clear mandate to protect Zuma. Parliament therefore lost all credibility. People now watch its proceedings not to learn or to follow debates about issues that are central to their lives, but to be amused and entertained. It’s something to joke about.

The atmosphere is such that even the rules governing the institution are open to interpretation, hence the incessant interruptions. Trust has been shot out of the water. It’s no surprise therefore that the speaker and her officials have been driven to distraction trying to control the house.

A new dawn, we’re told, is about to break. Its rays should thus percolate all corners and crevices of parliament. Mbete and Lechesa Tsenoli, her bumbling deputy, should be put out to pasture. They represent the old guard. The job for which they were sent to parliament — to take care of Zuma — is now no more.

A new leadership, untainted by party or ideological loyalties, should now take charge. The speaker should not be a party functionary. To steal a line from a bygone era, a wind of change should blow through the corridors of parliament. The institution should be rescued from the ANC straitjacket.