The imposed sanctions and penalties – which included losing a month’s salary – handed to six EFF members for their conduct during last year’s State of the Nation Address (Sona), were justly imposed and did not need the intervention of the court, Judge Dennis Davis has found.

The EFF’s application that the imposed sanctions and penalties be declared unconstitutional was recently dismissed in the Western Cape High Court.

EFF national spokesperson Leigh Ann Matthys said: “The judgment is noted, we are still reviewing it to decide what the next steps are.”

Julius Malema, Floyd Shivambu, Mbuyiseni Ndlozi, Marshall Dlamini, Vuyani Pambo and Sinawo Tambo were rapped over the knuckles for their disruptive conduct during the Sona sitting last year when they alighted the stage where the Speaker of Parliament, the chairperson of the National Council of Provinces (NCOP), the president and various support staff were located.

For their misconduct, the Power and Privileges Committee recommended that the members apologise to the Speaker, the president and the people of South Africa.

It was also recommended that the members be suspended for a month from February 1, 2024, to February 29, 2024, without a month’s salary.

The National Assembly, by majority vote, adopted the recommended sanctions.

“As the president began his Sona address, various members of the EFF raised points of order which the Speaker of Parliament rejected as ‘being spurious’. She ordered the members of the EFF, who were continuously raising these points of order, to cease doing so. When these members persisted in their conduct, the Speaker, considering these members to be engaged in disruptive behaviour, ordered them to exit the House...Following her decision, the Speaker ordered the Serjeant at Arms to approach these members to ensure that they vacated the House.

“It then appeared that as all of the parliamentary representatives of the EFF were about to leave the House, (six) members thereof, being the applicants, alighted the stage...At this point, members of the security forces and the Parliamentary Protection Services moved onto the stage to remove the applicants from the House.

“The applicants were charged with misconduct on the basis of a charge sheet of 7 November 2023,” the judgment read.

The EFF members argued that “an independent person should be instructed to conduct the mandated inquiry into members of Parliament who were charged with contempt of Parliament before the report thereof would be considered by the National Assembly”, challenging the National Assembly Rule 214 and Section 12 (5) of the Privileges Act.

The members averred that the committee’s discretion “holds the potential for abuse and runs contrary to a process that is rational, reasonable and procedurally fair”.

Judge Davis found the committee’s process and conduct were not unlawful.

“There is no dispute that Parliament exercises the ultimate power to discipline members... Once, as it must be accepted, that Parliament in terms of the Privileges Act, which is sourced in s 57 of the Constitution, has the power to vindicate this authority over members of Parliament, there is no basis by which to find that an independent third party should be involved in this process.”

The Mercury

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