All rascals and their political masters must be given a
serious lesson.
On Tue, 26 Aug 2014 16:07:35 +0200
"VC" <[email protected]> wrote:
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> ANC Chief Whip's Office, 26 August 2014
>
>
>
>
>
> ANC will not stand idly by as democratic institutions are
> attacked
>
>
>
>
>
> The Office of the ANC Chief Whip rejects suggestions from
> some analysts and
> commentators seeking to pin the blame for the eruption of
> hooliganism on
> Thursday on the Speaker of the National Assembly and the
> President. A
> misinformation being peddled here is that because the
> Speaker comes from the
> ANC, she is biased and acted to protect the President
> from accountability.
> On the other hand, the fabrication goes on to allege that
> the President
> failed to respond sufficiently to the question hence the
> rowdy behaviour.
>
>
>
> It is the tragedy of our public discourse that the
> anti-Zuma prejudices all
> the time seem to trump principle. An outrageous conduct
> that would
> ordinarily be roundly condemned by all sensible South
> Africans is excused
> and justified because it is directed at a figure some
> section of our public
> commentators and the media dislike. Suddenly we see our
> public critics
> burying their heads in the sand, seeing no evil, hearing
> no evil and
> speaking no evil on matters of principle. Similarly, we
> see those who have
> repeatedly failed to unseat the ANC through democratic
> elections over the
> last 20 years unsurprisingly now applauding an attempt to
> destroy legitimate
> democratic institutions with a hope to weaken a
> democratically elected
> government.
>
>
>
> Because some section of the media, some pundits and
> opposition have joined
> forces to publicly glorify the blatant acts of unruliness
> that played out in
> the Assembly, even an institution supporting democracy
> jumps onto the
> bandwagon to surf on the populist wave. An earlier
> constitutionally sound
> principle in which Parliament would have been the decider
> on the adequacy of
> the President's response is inexplicably and conveniently
> abandoned because
> the wave of media opinion now faces a certain direction.
>
>
>
> We therefore wish to deal with this misinformation
> through the following
> facts:
>
>
>
> 1. The Speaker of the National Assembly only acts within
> the prescribed
> rules in the management of the sessions of the House. The
> rules are not the
> creation of the Speaker or the ruling party, but are made
> and adopted by all
> political parties represented in Parliament. Once the
> rules have been
> adopted, all parties and their members are expected at
> all times to abide by
> them. The Speaker, as she had done previously, managed
> the sitting fairly
> and without fear, favour or prejudice.
>
>
>
> 2. It has been claimed that because the Speaker comes
> from the ANC she is
> bound to favour the ruling party. The EFF has even called
> for an amendment
> to the Constitution so that a 'neutral' Speaker in form
> of a retired judge
> should preside over debates in Parliament. In all
> established democracies
> with democratic constitutions, a party that win election
> selects the head of
> the executive and head of the legislature. Our democratic
> constitution
> emphasises the principle of separation of powers in which
> the judiciary, the
> executive and the legislature exists separately and their
> powers are not in
> conflict with each other. By having a retired judge (who
> is practically
> still regarded as part of the judiciary) doubling as a
> head of the
> legislature would be tantamount to the judiciary heading
> another independent
> arm of the state. Only in a dictatorship such separation
> of powers are
> disregarded.
>
>
>
> 3. The Speaker gave the President an opportunity to
> respond to the question,
> which he did even in the face of howling and other
> disruptive acts.
> Questions time is one of the mechanisms for holding the
> executive
> accountable. However, they are also a terrain of
> political contestation.
> This means that there can never be unanimous political
> consensus amongst
> parties regarding any answer provided. It is outrageous
> for any MP to engage
> in unruly conduct just because, in his or her political
> opinion, the
> question has not been dealt with satisfactorily.
>
>
>
> 4. The EFF's disruption was planned beforehand and the
> details of this plan
> were an open secret in the supporters were bussed in to
> drive the disruption
> from the gallery to complement what the MPs were doing on
> the floor of the
> Assembly. Therefore, regardless of what the President
> might have said the
> disruption were planned to take place. It is therefore
> unfortunate that the
> media would fall for the blatant propaganda that the
> disruption resulted
> from the President's handling of the question
>
>
>
> 5. There is a misguided campaign relating to the
> President's payment of the
> money, which was initiated by the leader of the EFF, that
> seeks to discredit
> the current parliamentary process set up to consider the
> report of the
> President on the security upgrades at his private home.
> In our
> constitutional democracy such lawful and legitimate
> processes are important
> in ensuring that matters are dealt with thoroughly,
> fairly and openly to
> ensure that appropriate solutions are arrived at. Malema
> himself is enjoying
> fair and just processes in relation to his R18m tax case
> and his corruption
> case emanating from his companies' alleged looting of
> public funds in
> Limpopo. We reaffirm our support for the ad hoc committee
> to perform the
> task for which it was tasked without fear, favour or
> prejudice.
>
>
>
> 6. Since the start of this new term of Parliament, the
> EFF MPs have been
> involved in rowdy behaviour and have indicated openly
> that they would not
> play by the rules - which they described as colonialist.
> We are in the
> fourth month since the beginning of this Parliament and
> we are yet to see
> any proposal from that party regarding amendment to the
> rules. This confirms
> our view that their conduct has nothing to do with the
> rules but an
> orchestrated plan to relentlessly discredit Parliament
> and other democratic
> institutions with a view to render them ungovernable. The
> ANC will do
> everything within the rules and the law to preserve the
> integrity and
> decorum of the institution in defence of our democracy.
>
>
>
> It would be a biggest error on the part of the EFF and
> its fellow travellers
> to think that this movement will fold its arms as our
> hard-fought democratic
> gains and democratic institutions are discredited and
> destroyed. We welcome
> the tough stance taken by Parliament as well as the
> measures announced by
> the Speaker this afternoon to deal with the
> mischief-makers behind
> Thursday's disruption.
>
>
>
>
>
> Issued by the Office of the ANC Chief Whip
>
>
>
> Enquiries:
>
> Moloto Mothapo, 082 370 6930
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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