Ordinarily, parliament is supposed to be a place where political parties send their most accomplished representatives, where contending policy options find expression and the nation benefits from a festival of ideas that leads to an improvement in citizens’ quality of life.
In reality, our parliament is where our leaders’ paucity of thought is shamelessly put on display. We reached a new low this week as parliamentary security violently ejected members of the EFF from the chamber. Female MPs claimed to have been sexually assaulted in the process. It shouldn’t matter what the political differences are, no-one deserves such humiliation.
We are relieved that speaker of parliament Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula has promised an expeditious inquiry into these grave claims. We also note the EFF’s statements about police cases being opened into a serious and troubling development.
That said, we must point out that the EFF had planned to disrupt the president’s speech, as communicated by its leader Julius Malema earlier last week. And so the innumerable points of order, the silly efforts at filibustering and the refusal to vacate the house when instructed by Mapisa-Nqakula to do so were as much part of a poorly thought-out strategy to cause chaos as it was unsurprising.
This is tragic because Ramaphosa is, in fact, not a victim
It was, for many, a déjà vu moment. This theatrical strategy was used to help remove former president Jacob Zuma at the height of state capture. It creates the impression of parliament not as a place where debaters outwit or persuade each other, but one where mindlessness and brute force are seen as solutions to the nation’s challenges.
The EFF’s tactics have the unfortunate potential of making Ramaphosa appear a victim of bullies clad in red, who have no idea how to hold him accountable and who consequently resort to ineffective and banal methods.
This is tragic because Ramaphosa is, in fact, not a victim. He is the cause of the commotion in parliament. He is caught up in a maelstrom of alleged criminality involving theft, possible foreign currency exchange violations and a resort to banditry to retrieve stolen money.
Almost two weeks after the revelations, many ordinary people were hoping Ramaphosa would use parliament to take the country into his confidence about what, in fact, transpired at his Phala Phala farm in Limpopo. But alas, he opted for a legalistic approach that leaves the nation none the wiser about whether its president engaged in criminal acts.
It boggles the mind why Ramaphosa called a press conference after his presidency budget vote on Friday because he clearly had nothing to share about the scandal surrounding him.
Given the reputational damage posed by the criminal claims against him, the president may well be focused on saving his own skin through his silence — while the nation expects him to put the country first.
Ramaphosa has missed a great opportunity to come clean. His silence lends credence to what he sees as a smear against him. While the EFF’s strategy of causing chaos in parliament reveals their lack of imagination, this is no excuse for their members to be sexually violated.
We urge Mapisa-Nqakula to put in place clear processes to ensure all security officials know how to handle rowdy female MPs without violating them. The EFF too must look in the mirror and reflect on the usefulness of its methods.
The country has placed its faith in our MPs and the president to provide leadership and chart a new socioeconomic path, after many years of apartheid misrule, followed by periods of poor leadership. The people of this country deserve better than the sorry saga of this past week.
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