By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The Powers and Privileges Committee has agreed that six Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) MPs’ salaries will be docked for a month and they will be suspended.
They were ordered to apologise to President Cyril Ramaphosa for disrupting this year’s State of the Nation Address.
They have also been ordered to apologise to National Assembly Speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, Parliament and the public.
The initiator of the hearing, Advocate Anton Katz, said this would be the appropriate sanction after the guilty finding against the EFF MPs.
Katz, recommended a ten-day suspension from 6 February 2024 to 16 February.
This would see the MPs miss the State of the Nation Address scheduled for 8 February.
“It is clear that the six members do not take SONA seriously, and they took it as an opportunity, so a message needs to be sent that SONA is a serious event – a constitutional event set out in Section 84 of the Constitution,” said Katz.
“We submit that an appropriate sanction for those six affected members is to miss out on SONA 2024, so that’s an appropriate section – S12(5) (g) to suspend them for ten days with or without remuneration.”
Their application for postponement and a request for appointment of an independent person to preside over the hearing were refused.
However, the hearing was told that their attorneys had written to the state attorney asking to make written submissions on the merits of their case, after apparently watching the proceedings on social media.
The MPs were found guilty of being in contempt of Parliament after they crossed the floor and jumped onto the podium where Ramaphosa was speaking.
The party was protesting what they believed to be a cover-up by Ramaphosa over the money stolen from his Phala Phala farm.
The sanctioned MPs include Julius Malema, Floyd Shivambu, Marshall Dlamini, Sinawo Tambo, Vuyani Pambo, and Mbuyiseni Ndlozi.
Katz added that the guilty verdict was the appropriate finding and then took the committee through sanctions that could be imposed from a list of seven.
“There are two of the seven that fit the purpose of the conduct the affected members have been found guilty of,” he said.
Katz ruled out formal warning, reprimand, withholding their right to use of enjoyment of facilities provided to MPs and suspension with docking their salaries for up to a month.
The severe sanctions meted out by the Parliament’s Powers and Privileges Committee serve as a stark reminder of the consequences of disorderly conduct in the nation’s legislative assembly.