Chaos in Parliament as MPs breach seven different rules. Opposition members of Parliament (MPs) came to blows in the National Assembly on Tuesday, during presidential question time, prompting house chairwoman Thoko Didaza to call security to remove members of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) and Agang SA.
In the first fracas in the House since Jacob Zuma stepped down as parliament, things got very heated, very quickly. EFF MP Nazier Paulsen climbed over benches to throw punches at Agang SA deputy president Andries Tlouamma, who had let rip an expletive.
This followed earlier pushing and shoving between the EFF benches and the Democratic Alliance (DA) after DA chief whip John Steenhuisen referred to the far-left party’s MPs as “VBS looters” in a reference to allegations that both party leader Julius Malema and his deputy Floyd Shivambu had shared in the loot of the fraud scam at VBS Bank.
The EFF responded by chanting “racists” at the DA MPs. Malema’s microphone was turned off at one stage because he shouted that Steenhuisen was a “white boy” who had been accused of rape.
When Didiza interrupted the shouting match for long enough to allow President Cyril Ramaphosa to speak, he said he “taken aback” by what had transpired and “even a bit handicapped”.
Violence broke out among the benches repeatedly in presidential question time under his predecessor Jacob Zuma. It was the first time it happened since Ramaphosa took power in February.
Didiza said MPs had breached seven different parliamentary rules during the fracas, and that she would meet with the chief whips of parties to address what had ensued in the chamber.
Source: The Citizen
