TO OUR MISFORTUNE ART THOU HOURABLE
If the Speaker of the National Assembly, Baleka Mbethe, knows how to recognise defeat, she would fan an excuse to resign from her position. Now is the time for her to follow her name and run.
Better still, if the ruling party knows how to abate disaster, it would encourage the Speaker to fall on her sword. It is clear she does not have the acumen for the cut-and-thrust of parliamentary robust debating. And she is blatantly bias in her rulings.
Ms Mbete’s dilemma, though a national chairperson (an innocuous position with no real powers) of the ruling party, has no support base. She is there on good graces of powerful individuals within the ruling party’s executive. Thus she has no real power, and she knows this, which is why she has to do everything in her power in parliament to follow the prescriptions of Luthuli House. Since her demotion from being an interim deputy president her clout has been diminishing in real time, especially through a televised parliamentary revolution.Her demise has long been in the making though.
No one can deny the fact that the parliament of the Republic of South Africa is rendered a mere rubber stamp platform by the system of democratic party politics. This system dictates that members of South African parliament be chosen by their respective parties. The party chooses these based on proportionality of votes received from different provinces, meaning some modicum of constituency representative is maintained. Still, the party choses the names based on party list, submitted by its provincial structures, not the respective constituencies. This means that the members of parliament are more accountable to the party than any particular constituency.
There is no shortage of criticism of South African parliamentary system. Its failings are blatant when MPs have to vote in parliament. It is almost unheard of for them to vote against their party lines regardless of their persuasions on the matter on the table. The last it happened was with the highly independent mind of the Economics professor, Liberation struggle veteran and former MP of the ANC, Ben Turok. He voted against the protection of state information bill against his party directive. For his daring adventure his party threatened him with disciplinary action and expulsion.
Before the arrival of the new kids on the block, Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), parliament was a retirement village for party loyalist and Liberation struggle heroes who attended minimal required sessions, and mostly slept their way through the proceedings. With all its faults the EFF has managed to inject some livelihood into the House of parliament. The only problem now is that, where parliament used to be a rubber stamp under Mandela, a silent House of fear and loathing under Mbeki, it has now becoming something of sheeben roundtable discussions and a clown's den kindergarden playground.
The EFF fiery leaders, former ANC Youth League leaders, and scorned president Zuma allies, conduct the business of parliament in a juvenile defiant spirit. They use the house as a platform for political point scoring rather than a place for contesting legislation. Julius Malema's second in Command, Floyd Shivambu (EFF Chief Whip) - they call themselves Commissars - has even a stronger provocative tongue and rude gestures that disfigure parliamentary debate with filth.
Albeit, EFF learnt to be savvy quickly on parliamentary rules after being caught up on several occasions by issues of procedure in the beginning. They now try to use parliamentary rules to subvert its procedures. Twice they have grounded parliament to a deadlock necessitating the abandonment of its sessions. Many times they have been thrown out of the House for errant behaviour. There are also reported scuffles between EFF MPs and the boer FFP (Freedom Front Plus) that occasionally verge on fist fights.
Things took on an alarming turn when the EFF got dissatisfied with president Zuma's reply to their question about when was he paying back the taxpayer's money wrongly used to renovate his private house. The recommendation was made by the sterling Public Protector, Thuli Madonsels, who insisted the president pay back a portion of of R246 million spend on his private residence in Nkandla on pretense of beefing up his security measures.
The president gave his usual wishy-washy answer to the EFF question, giggling in nervousness to hide his irritation. Instead of playing by decorum of parliament the EFF harried, refusing to accept the evasive tricks of the president. They started chanting: 'Pay Back The Money' within the House, joined by some amused opposition MPs to the irritation of the ruling party MPs. What happened next is best described by South African journalist and political commentator, Ranjeni Munusamy:
"For a few minutes, South Africa was on the brink of something truly horrendous. Had the riot police tried to remove the EFF from the House, all hell would have broken loose. The EFF would have resisted, and the public order policing unit, not known for their restraint, would have used force. Here's the big problem for whomever it was who called in the riot police to deal with a political battle and protect the president from having to answer difficult questions in Parliament: the Constitution of the Republic prohibits the arrest of any Member of Parliament for ‘anything they have said in, produced before or submitted to the Assembly or any of its committees'. Essentially, the police would have violated the Constitution had they gone ahead with the operation."
Sensibly the police refused to be dragged into the mess, perhaps recalling that the last time they were used to settle political scores thirty-four miners died in Marikana. During the excitement the president was snatched off parliament by the security police and the parliamentary session abandoned. The Speaker's cancellation of that session gave ample excuse for the president to evade answering the Question.
The lame official opposition party of pseudo liberals, the DA (Democratic Alliance), is itself showing signs of learning by necessity from the EFF. Having realise that moderation is poor magnet for populist politics it is now adopting political stunts to hijack prominence. In imitation of impotent activity, it led the coalition of the opposition parties in discordant complaints that resulted in tabling a motion of no confidence in the Speaker of parliament. The major argument was that she was biased in her rulings, which is true and everybody knows.
On its part the EFF made an unconstitutional demand that the Speaker be elected from retired judges of the South African High courts. Needless to say, after much jiving around within the House, the motion was defeated because the ANC holds a majority. In fact, The opposition parties, led by the Obamesque young inexperienced DA Leader of Parliament, Mmusi Maimane, took its toys and went home in a tantrum, never even getting to vote on the motion, which probably was the intention all along, because the stunt was about getting prime media space.
Mr Maimane is skillfully fluent with a prevaricating intellect from ideologically somersaults he has to perform in trying to attract black votes into a white conservative party with liberal delusions. Where Malema is roguish Maimane is suave, but the EFF leader, being a street fighter, is much more of a wily opponent the ruling party loves to loath.
The rumble and jungle of EFF style of politics entertains the public. Some see in it the workings of a limping democracy. Whatever the case, at least the demand for the parliamentary channel has rocketed since the EFF came along, prompting another debate about why the public's constitutional right of being informed of parliamentary proceedings had been auctioned to private Pay TV company. The simple answer is that our politics have been hijacked by profit making imperatives, dragging us, slowly but surely, towards the American style of rule by plutocracy.
The actual achievement of the fifth parliament since its inception tells a story of under achievement in actual legislative business of parliament. But who is complaining? The public might not have much bread on their tables, but there's no shortage of circus from the ruling elite.
For one, the opposition parties had walked out, under vague circumstances, of the ad hoc committee dealing with Nkandla security upgrades, thus giving members of the committee from the ruling party to easy opportunity to rig the acquittal of the president. Thinking they had killed the snake members of the ruling party presented their finding to the house for rubber stamping. But the snake was only stunned, members of the DA and EFF engaged in a roguish behaviour, trying to filibuster the proceedings for more than seven hours. The tact, of course, failed.
Eventually the riot police were called inside parliament to remove an opposition party member who was defying the orders of the deputy speaker. When the police entered the National Assebly everyone, but members of the ruling party, knew a Rubicon had been crossed towards dismantling the sacred tenets of our constitutional democracy. This would either, raise the standard of revolt, or cower it down towards a police state.
DA members, in particular, made to protect the member of the EFF to an extent of exchanging blows with the police. But they realised it was a lost cause, so packed their bags to follow her as she was being escorted outside, perhaps preferring the company of Cato in jail to the unconstitutional honours of the house of parliament defiled by Caesar entering the gates of Rome in security force regalia.
The chief whips had to throw down the gauntlet and parliament adjourned early in the evening. With that the bankruptcy of parliament’s old order was exposed.
Strangely enough, the public watched all this in shock, not all amused this time, nor were they entertained with rude, thuggish behaviour of hourable members whom they now regard as being so called to the general misfortune of the republic.
One thing is certain, under the current Speaker, the National Assembly is operating under extreme obstructionist mode. She has a sore and irascible inferiority complex that makes it impossible for her to moderate proceedings in a fair and unbiased manner. Most of the time she gives an impression that she consults her cups before making crucial rulings.
Indeed wolf whistling from opposition benches in the fifth parliament has become endemic, but that is the nature of parliamentary democracy under overheating political atmosphere. She is not fit for its purpose. Obviously she thought, wrongly, the chair would be a comfortable warm one to bolster her fading influence. Now that she has found how wrong she was its time to run if she wants to maintain the modicum of decency she still has.
Indeed it is an over simplification to put the misfortunes of parliament only in the incompetences of the Speaker, but when the driver is drunk on the wheel the passengers tend to feel motion sickness. Once you arrest the driver you have more opportunity to notice the louts. As it is now everybody is hurled hither and thither in an expensive jolly ride display of bad manners at the expense of taxpayers.
********
If the Speaker of the National Assembly, Baleka Mbethe, knows how to recognise defeat, she would fan an excuse to resign from her position. Now is the time for her to follow her name and run.
Better still, if the ruling party knows how to abate disaster, it would encourage the Speaker to fall on her sword. It is clear she does not have the acumen for the cut-and-thrust of parliamentary robust debating. And she is blatantly bias in her rulings.
Ms Mbete’s dilemma, though a national chairperson (an innocuous position with no real powers) of the ruling party, has no support base. She is there on good graces of powerful individuals within the ruling party’s executive. Thus she has no real power, and she knows this, which is why she has to do everything in her power in parliament to follow the prescriptions of Luthuli House. Since her demotion from being an interim deputy president her clout has been diminishing in real time, especially through a televised parliamentary revolution.Her demise has long been in the making though.
No one can deny the fact that the parliament of the Republic of South Africa is rendered a mere rubber stamp platform by the system of democratic party politics. This system dictates that members of South African parliament be chosen by their respective parties. The party chooses these based on proportionality of votes received from different provinces, meaning some modicum of constituency representative is maintained. Still, the party choses the names based on party list, submitted by its provincial structures, not the respective constituencies. This means that the members of parliament are more accountable to the party than any particular constituency.
There is no shortage of criticism of South African parliamentary system. Its failings are blatant when MPs have to vote in parliament. It is almost unheard of for them to vote against their party lines regardless of their persuasions on the matter on the table. The last it happened was with the highly independent mind of the Economics professor, Liberation struggle veteran and former MP of the ANC, Ben Turok. He voted against the protection of state information bill against his party directive. For his daring adventure his party threatened him with disciplinary action and expulsion.
Before the arrival of the new kids on the block, Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), parliament was a retirement village for party loyalist and Liberation struggle heroes who attended minimal required sessions, and mostly slept their way through the proceedings. With all its faults the EFF has managed to inject some livelihood into the House of parliament. The only problem now is that, where parliament used to be a rubber stamp under Mandela, a silent House of fear and loathing under Mbeki, it has now becoming something of sheeben roundtable discussions and a clown's den kindergarden playground.
The EFF fiery leaders, former ANC Youth League leaders, and scorned president Zuma allies, conduct the business of parliament in a juvenile defiant spirit. They use the house as a platform for political point scoring rather than a place for contesting legislation. Julius Malema's second in Command, Floyd Shivambu (EFF Chief Whip) - they call themselves Commissars - has even a stronger provocative tongue and rude gestures that disfigure parliamentary debate with filth.
Albeit, EFF learnt to be savvy quickly on parliamentary rules after being caught up on several occasions by issues of procedure in the beginning. They now try to use parliamentary rules to subvert its procedures. Twice they have grounded parliament to a deadlock necessitating the abandonment of its sessions. Many times they have been thrown out of the House for errant behaviour. There are also reported scuffles between EFF MPs and the boer FFP (Freedom Front Plus) that occasionally verge on fist fights.
Things took on an alarming turn when the EFF got dissatisfied with president Zuma's reply to their question about when was he paying back the taxpayer's money wrongly used to renovate his private house. The recommendation was made by the sterling Public Protector, Thuli Madonsels, who insisted the president pay back a portion of of R246 million spend on his private residence in Nkandla on pretense of beefing up his security measures.
The president gave his usual wishy-washy answer to the EFF question, giggling in nervousness to hide his irritation. Instead of playing by decorum of parliament the EFF harried, refusing to accept the evasive tricks of the president. They started chanting: 'Pay Back The Money' within the House, joined by some amused opposition MPs to the irritation of the ruling party MPs. What happened next is best described by South African journalist and political commentator, Ranjeni Munusamy:
"For a few minutes, South Africa was on the brink of something truly horrendous. Had the riot police tried to remove the EFF from the House, all hell would have broken loose. The EFF would have resisted, and the public order policing unit, not known for their restraint, would have used force. Here's the big problem for whomever it was who called in the riot police to deal with a political battle and protect the president from having to answer difficult questions in Parliament: the Constitution of the Republic prohibits the arrest of any Member of Parliament for ‘anything they have said in, produced before or submitted to the Assembly or any of its committees'. Essentially, the police would have violated the Constitution had they gone ahead with the operation."
Sensibly the police refused to be dragged into the mess, perhaps recalling that the last time they were used to settle political scores thirty-four miners died in Marikana. During the excitement the president was snatched off parliament by the security police and the parliamentary session abandoned. The Speaker's cancellation of that session gave ample excuse for the president to evade answering the Question.
The lame official opposition party of pseudo liberals, the DA (Democratic Alliance), is itself showing signs of learning by necessity from the EFF. Having realise that moderation is poor magnet for populist politics it is now adopting political stunts to hijack prominence. In imitation of impotent activity, it led the coalition of the opposition parties in discordant complaints that resulted in tabling a motion of no confidence in the Speaker of parliament. The major argument was that she was biased in her rulings, which is true and everybody knows.
On its part the EFF made an unconstitutional demand that the Speaker be elected from retired judges of the South African High courts. Needless to say, after much jiving around within the House, the motion was defeated because the ANC holds a majority. In fact, The opposition parties, led by the Obamesque young inexperienced DA Leader of Parliament, Mmusi Maimane, took its toys and went home in a tantrum, never even getting to vote on the motion, which probably was the intention all along, because the stunt was about getting prime media space.
Mr Maimane is skillfully fluent with a prevaricating intellect from ideologically somersaults he has to perform in trying to attract black votes into a white conservative party with liberal delusions. Where Malema is roguish Maimane is suave, but the EFF leader, being a street fighter, is much more of a wily opponent the ruling party loves to loath.
The rumble and jungle of EFF style of politics entertains the public. Some see in it the workings of a limping democracy. Whatever the case, at least the demand for the parliamentary channel has rocketed since the EFF came along, prompting another debate about why the public's constitutional right of being informed of parliamentary proceedings had been auctioned to private Pay TV company. The simple answer is that our politics have been hijacked by profit making imperatives, dragging us, slowly but surely, towards the American style of rule by plutocracy.
The actual achievement of the fifth parliament since its inception tells a story of under achievement in actual legislative business of parliament. But who is complaining? The public might not have much bread on their tables, but there's no shortage of circus from the ruling elite.
For one, the opposition parties had walked out, under vague circumstances, of the ad hoc committee dealing with Nkandla security upgrades, thus giving members of the committee from the ruling party to easy opportunity to rig the acquittal of the president. Thinking they had killed the snake members of the ruling party presented their finding to the house for rubber stamping. But the snake was only stunned, members of the DA and EFF engaged in a roguish behaviour, trying to filibuster the proceedings for more than seven hours. The tact, of course, failed.
Eventually the riot police were called inside parliament to remove an opposition party member who was defying the orders of the deputy speaker. When the police entered the National Assebly everyone, but members of the ruling party, knew a Rubicon had been crossed towards dismantling the sacred tenets of our constitutional democracy. This would either, raise the standard of revolt, or cower it down towards a police state.
DA members, in particular, made to protect the member of the EFF to an extent of exchanging blows with the police. But they realised it was a lost cause, so packed their bags to follow her as she was being escorted outside, perhaps preferring the company of Cato in jail to the unconstitutional honours of the house of parliament defiled by Caesar entering the gates of Rome in security force regalia.
The chief whips had to throw down the gauntlet and parliament adjourned early in the evening. With that the bankruptcy of parliament’s old order was exposed.
Strangely enough, the public watched all this in shock, not all amused this time, nor were they entertained with rude, thuggish behaviour of hourable members whom they now regard as being so called to the general misfortune of the republic.
One thing is certain, under the current Speaker, the National Assembly is operating under extreme obstructionist mode. She has a sore and irascible inferiority complex that makes it impossible for her to moderate proceedings in a fair and unbiased manner. Most of the time she gives an impression that she consults her cups before making crucial rulings.
Indeed wolf whistling from opposition benches in the fifth parliament has become endemic, but that is the nature of parliamentary democracy under overheating political atmosphere. She is not fit for its purpose. Obviously she thought, wrongly, the chair would be a comfortable warm one to bolster her fading influence. Now that she has found how wrong she was its time to run if she wants to maintain the modicum of decency she still has.
Indeed it is an over simplification to put the misfortunes of parliament only in the incompetences of the Speaker, but when the driver is drunk on the wheel the passengers tend to feel motion sickness. Once you arrest the driver you have more opportunity to notice the louts. As it is now everybody is hurled hither and thither in an expensive jolly ride display of bad manners at the expense of taxpayers.
********
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