EFF statement on the abuse of parliament and protection of the corrupt Jacob Zuma 14 November 2014 The Economic Freedom Fighters notes with disgust the developments that have characterised the 5th Democratic Parliament of the Republic of South Africa. We are witnessing a degenerate emergence in the most naked form of abuse of power and processes of parliament all to defend corruption and render the peoples parliament toothless. The EFF from its founding moment took a vow to defend the democratic gains of our people and that it will never recognise, comply and it will further defy unjust laws. This must include all processes masquerading as rules yet protecting and hiding corruption. On the 13th of November 2014, the Presiding officers in Parliament made lots of questionable decisions concerning the rules of Parliament against members of the opposition. In one instance, the Deputy Speaker of Parliament instructed a member of the Democratic Alliance to leave the Assembly Chambers, of which he correctly refused because such an instruction was illegal. When such an instruction happened, there was no force used against the Member of Parliament. However, when the House Chairperson of Parliament instructed an EFF female Member of Parliament, fighter Reneilwe Mashabela, she correctly refused because she was stating the obvious and truthful fact that Jacob Zuma is a thief and a known criminal who avoids courts and refuses to account to Parliament. What we saw after was the usage of the police by the ANC presiding officers to physically assault and remove a democratically elected female fighter who was unarmed and posed no threat to anyone’s life. The police went further to assault other Members of Parliament, females in particular who sought to defend the right of fighter Reneilwe Mashabela. The parliament television services where further tempered with to hide the assault and violence on Members of Parliament. They did this after many members of the media had left the house because they are cowards who want to do illegal things in secrecy and under the cover of darkness. This manipulation of the cameras in parliament must also be understood as censorship and the prohibition of the right of the people to view and know what is happening in parliament. These unfortunate episodes must be put squarely on the feet of the ruling ANC, which must be held responsible for the degeneration and violation of the constitutional rights of Members of Parliament. Parliament degenerates because the ANC undermines constitutional provisions and practices, but worse they prioritise the supremacy of Jacob Zuma over that of the constitution and parliament. The ANC preceding officers, by ordering police on EFF MPs have violated Section 58 (1), of the Constitution which states that “cabinet members and members of the National Assembly have freedom of speech in the Assembly and in committees, subject to its rules and orders; and not liable to civil or criminal proceedings, arrest, imprisonment or damages for anything that they have said in, produced before or submitted to the Assembly or any of the committees”. Like in Marikana, the police have once more engaged in an illegal activity, demonstrating their incompetence and that they act on political instructions. The EFF will approach the Courts to seek urgent and permanent interdict against police officers who enter into the chambers of parliament to remove democratically elected members. It can never and will never be correct for the police to interfere with the proceedings of parliament because elected members of parliament will always be in fear that whatever they say and do in parliament will be subjected to the police. The EFF will do this ultimately in defence of parliament and the very constitution which is the highest law of the land. The EFF has also written a formal complaint about the manipulation and censorship of parliament TV to hide illegal and criminal activities against Members of Parliament. On Nkandla Report and Jacob Zuma We wish to reiterate that Jacob Zuma is a thief who has unduly benefited from the security upgrade of his private home in Nkandla. He has knowingly used state resources and the peoples money to build his private mansion, benefiting himself and his family. We reject the Nkandla Ad Hoc Committee report with the disgust it deserves. We reject it as a dishonest report only seeking to use parliament processes to protect a corrupt individual. The EFF will make sure that the Public Protector’s report and recommendations are adhered to by the thief Jacob Zuma. The Public Protector found that Zuma unduly benefited from the upgrade and he must pay back the money. We shall therefore take legal action to make sure that this remedial action is fully realised and Jacob Zuma pays back the money of the people. Until such a time, Zuma will not present anything in parliament, particularly the State of the Nation without facing protest action from the EFF benches. We shall make sure that life in parliament for him does not become business as usual when he has squandered public funds, disreputably used the ANC majority to protect himself from being accountable and paying pack the money. The EFF is not going to retreat from making sure that no one, including the majority party renders parliament as toothless. Parliament must make robustly hold the government and president accountable and no amount of kangaroo disciplinary hearings, police harassment will deter us from fulfilling this task. The EFF will also never allow South Africa to degenerate into a kleptocracy, where government and parliament are used as institutions for politicians to steal public funds. In our founding Manifesto, the EFF commits as part of its 7 cardinal pillars, to a corrupt free and accountable government. When it comes to our 7 cardinal pillars, we fight with everything we have and use everything in our arsenal because the 7 cardinal pillars constitute the programme that took us to the Parliaments of South Africa to defend our people. ISSUED BY THE ECONOMIC FREEDOM FIGHTERS
Posted on: Fri, 14 Nov 2014 20:52:07 +0000