Concourt rules on ejecting MPs

DA scores major victory - police no longer allowed to remove officials from Parliament

POLICE may no longer barge into the National Assembly and remove MPs who are considered to be rowdy and disruptive, the Constitutional Court has ruled.

The DA yesterday scored a major victory after the country’s highest court ruled the law which allowed police to remove MPs was unconstitutional. The court dismissed the government’s appeal and ordered it pay the DA’s legal costs.

The opposition party had approached the Constitutional Court to invalidate Section 11 of the Powers and Privileges Act, which provided for the removal of MPs by police on instruction of the presiding officers.

The Western Cape High Court found previously there were discrepancies with the legislation.

This came after Speaker of Parliament Baleka Mbete ordered members of the EFF to be removed from the House by police during President Jacob Zuma’s State of the Nation Address last year.

At the time, Mbete ordered a serjeant- at- arms, who was assisted by unidentified security officers, to remove the EFF MPs.

EFF leader Julius Malema and members of his caucus were forced out of Parliament for insisting on asking Zuma when he would pay back money for upgrades to his Nkandla private home.

DA MPs also left in droves after Mbete and National Council of Provinces head Thandi Modise refused to answer further questions around security in the House.

The DA took the matter to the Western Cape High Court, which ruled the use of police to remove MPs was unconstitutional.

The government appealed against that decision.

In his judgment handed down yesterday however, Consitutional Court Justice Mbuyiseli Madlanga agreed with the High Court the move was unconstitutional.

He was accompanied by Deputy Chief Justice Dikgang Moseneke and Justice Edwin Cameron.

Justice Madlanga said it was imperative for MPs to be given room to express themselves.

He said the process of Parliament could only be meaningful if MPs were given room to freely make their points and express their opinions.

“For Parliament to properly exercise its oversight function over the executive, it must operate in an environment that guarantees members freedom from arrest, detention, prosecution or harassment of whatever nature,” the judge said.

“The High Court correctly found Section 11 to be constitu- tionally invalid. But the discussion and conclusion on constitutional invalidity makes it necessary to make a different order,” Justice Madlanga said.

The DA welcomed the judgment, saying part of the job of MPs was to hold the president and other members of the executive to account.

It would be a sad day for democracy if the presiding officers were allowed to have members arrested and removed from the precinct of Parliament for fulfilling their constitutional responsibility, the party said.