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Parliament gears up to tackle chaotic EFF, readies strict rule book Bianca Capazorio, The Times, Johannesburg, 15 January, 2015 Parliament's most senior advisors and technocrats are preparing to throw the rule book at the EFF, hinting that they will be relying heavily on the legislature's joint rule number 13 at next month's State of the Nation address. The EFF has vowed to disrupt President Jacob Zuma's speech, after the National Assembly Speaker Baleka Mbete this week turned down their request to schedule a session prior to the official opening of Parliament, for Zuma to explain when he would the pay back the Nkandla money. Rule number 13 of Parliament's schedule of rules for joint-sittings states that during joint-sittings of the two houses of Parliament, no MP may speak without being invited by a presiding officer or having obtained prior permission, to do so. Briefing journalists during a workshop on the rules of Parliament yesterday, secretaries of the National Assembly and the NCOP, Masibulele Xaso and advocate Modibedi Phindela gave an indication of how parliament was planning to deal with EFF MPs who could attempt to raise points of order or questions in a bid to disrupt Zuma's address. This is the first time that Parliament has had to invoking rule number 13 or even prepare for possible disruptions during SONA as such events had never occurred before. Xaso said that the rules for Parliament did not provide for questions to be put to the President during SONA because MPs could take up issues with him during the subsequent debate in the days following his speech. There are two days scheduled for debate after the address, after which President Zuma has an opportunity to respond. On the issue of raising points of order, Xaso said that a point of order had to relate to proceedings of the day only. This means any matter raised that does not relate to the SONA would be ruled out of order and therefore not entertained. The rules do not expressly prohibit MPs from asking of questions during the address, but Xaso said that the rules "can't provide for every eventuality" and as such, "previous practices and conventions are taken as an authoritative basis for parliamentary procedure." Rule 2, dealing with unforeseen matters is also likely to come into play in the eventuality of a disruption. That rule states that "the speaker and the chairperson of the council, acting jointly, may give a ruling or make a rule in respect of any matter for which the Joint Rules do not apply." Should these rules fail to minimise disruption, the presiding officers could rely on Rule 14 G which allows them to order a member to leave the chamber if they are "of the opinion that a member is deliberately contravening a provision of the rules". From: http://www.timeslive.co.za/thetimes/2015/01/15/parliament-gears-up-to-tackle -chaotic-eff-readies-strict-rule-book -- -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] . --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "YCLSA Discussion Forum" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
