Opposition unites against Mbete

OPPOSITION parties have united against National Assembly speaker Baleka Mbete (pictured) after an attack on EFF leader Julius Malema, whom she referred to as a cockroach at the weekend. Among the options the parties are considering is a court interdict to block Ms Mbete from presiding over tomorrow’s state of the nation address debate.

OPPOSITION parties have united against National Assembly speaker Baleka Mbete’s attack on Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) leader Julius Malema, whom she referred to as a cockroach on Saturday during a meeting of the African National Congress (ANC) in North West.

Among the options the opposition parties are considering is a court interdict to block Ms Mbete from presiding over tomorrow’s state of the nation address debate.

At least three parties, including the Democratic Alliance (DA), said yesterday that they would be seeking an “urgent meeting” with their colleagues in Parliament to discuss a strategy ahead of tomorrow’s debate on Mr Zuma’s speech.

Weekend reports were that Ms Mbete, speaking in her capacity as national chairwoman of the ANC, had launched a broadside against the EFF and Mr Malema whom she called a “cockroach” during her speech at the ANC North West provincial conference.

Ms Mbete was quoted as having said ANC deployees must work hard and defeat the EFF. “If we don’t work we will continue to have cockroaches like Malema roaming all over the place,” she said. She called on ANC branches to prepare themselves to fight the EFF in provincial legislatures and municipalities, which she charged the EFF was planning to move into next.

United Democratic Movement leader Bantu Holomisa said yesterday Ms Mbete could be blocked from presiding over tomorrow’s debate because her statement to ANC delegates in North West was made within the context of Thursday’s state of the nation address over which she presided.

However, DA parliamentary leader Mmusi Maimane, who yesterday was consulting with the party’s legal representatives, said a court interdict could be premature because parliamentary processes might have to be exhausted first. The most immediate move would be to bring Ms Mbete before Parliament’s powers and privileges committee.

But Mr Holomisa disagreed, saying “going the route of Parliament is a waste of time”, because the ANC was likely to use its majority to defend Ms Mbete.

Freedom Front Plus chief whip Corne Mulder said “if correctly reported, then what Ms Mbete said was shocking and in any other normal democracy she would be removed as speaker of the National Assembly”. However, Mr Mulder said, under the Zuma-led ANC “nothing like that will happen”.

He said opposition parties would, before noon tomorrow, “look at the best options and strategies within the rules and the law to ensure that Ms Mbete was censured”.

Although taking the legal route was an option, he said the courts had previously seemed reluctant to get involved in the internal workings of Parliament. The ANC should heed the warning that “Parliament could not function if all parties do not buy into it”, Mr Mulder said.

Neither ANC national spokesman Zizi Kodwa and parliamentary caucus spokesman Moloto Mothapo would comment on Ms Mbete’s “cockroach” slur.

In terms of the constitution, the process to remove the speaker or deputy speaker from office may be implemented when he or she ceases to be a member of the National Assembly, or when a resolution of the National Assembly was passed. The speaker could also lodge his or her resignation in writing with the secretary to Parliament.

Constitutional expert Shadrack Gutto said an interdict against the speaker “ought to be tested because her comments were unbecoming and contradicted the role that she occupies as the speaker”.

The “cockroach” comment demonstrated “hatred” towards Mr Malema as an MP as well as his colleagues, Mr Gutto said.

There was a case to be made that Ms Mbete was unlikely to apply the rules fairly where Mr Malema and the EFF were concerned. “There is a good ground to test that in the court or she should withdraw the comments,” he said.

But he conceded that it was unlikely that ANC MPs in Parliament would support a motion to remove such a high-ranking member of the ANC as Ms Mbete.

The EFF said in a statement yesterday that “the country cannot afford to have the speaker of the National Assembly who incites violence against members of Parliament, both inside and outside Parliament”.

“Parliament will only be safe when Baleka Mbete resigns, for she is biased and will do everything, including promoting hooliganism, to protect the Cabinet and Jacob Zuma,” said EFF spokesman Mbuyiseni Ndlozi.

There was a case to be made that Ms Mbete was unlikely to apply the rules fairly where Mr Malema and the EFF were concerned

THIS is the last edition that looks like the Business Day many of our readers have known for many years. Tomorrow we begin a new era in which we will not only bring you new sections and content but also retain the best of what you love.

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ISEE many people are shocked by the turn of events in Parliament last week. I feel for them but none of this is surprising, nor is what happens next going to be a revelation either.

Think back to December 2007 at the ANC’s Polokwane national conference. On stage then ANC chairman Mosiuoa Lekota was battling to keep the opening session from degenerating into chaos. He was interjected by “points of order” from the floor until he retreated and Kgalema Motlanthe took over.

Jacob Zuma and Thabo Mbeki, the leaders of the two slates contesting leadership of the party, sat stoney-faced on stage, the former skillfully hiding a smirk as his charges did a thorough job of grabbing the gathering by the scruff of the neck. It was a macabre scene as for the first time the whole world witnessed the party of Mandela eating itself from the inside. Before that day, the internecine fighting had been denied even though we had heard violent language, the burning of effigies and a barrage of insults in the media and in various meetings.

Last week the speaker, Baleka Mbete, who is also ANC chairwoman, got to feel what it was like to be in Lekota’s shoes and watch your meeting degenerate in front of the entire world. Like Lekota before her, Mbete looked woefully inadequate and ill prepared as proceedings got under way with a stern lecture on the constitution from the opposition benches.

Things have gone further south for her following her description of Economic Freedom Fighter (EFF) leader and MP Julius Malema as a “cockroach”. Her use of insulting language is likely to end up in the courts.

Mbete is in an invidious position. She has to pretend she is doing a proper job of being speaker while shielding her party boss, Zuma, from answering the question that has been haunting him since he began his second term. That is, when is he planning to pay back the “reasonable sum” of money that the public protector recommended he pays? So far, he has obfuscated and actively misrepresented the public protector’s recommendation.

At a lunch at Sefako Makgatho Guesthouse two Sundays ago he animatedly told gathered journalists that the public protector had passed the buck on to the police minister to determine whether or not he should repay anything. This is a blatant lie.

Listening to and watching him speak, I got the impression that he genuinely does not believe he owes the public any explanation. This means the deadlock in Parliament is set to continue and spill over into the streets.

The president laughed uproariously when mysterious henchmen ejected and assaulted EFF MPs last week. The presence of cringing senior foreign diplomats and judges of local courts didn’t appear to bother him at all. It was the laughter of impunity and arrogance second to none.

I wonder if it has dawned on Mbete and Zuma yet that the EFF is largely the same outfit that used to insult senior leaders under their watch in the ANC Youth League. The chickens have come home to roost, and the country is the collateral damage. It is about to get worse. We should be worried.