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| By Bokwe | Feb 18th, 2010

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Cape Town, 16 February 2010: Today, the Congress of the People walked out of the chambers of the National Assembly while Parliament was in session. COPE was supported by the DA and ID following a political ruling by the clearly politically biased Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Ms Nomaindia Mfeteko. Yesterday in his response during the debate on the State of the Nation Address, COPE MP, Mr. Mluleki George in part said, “It is very clear from the State of the Nation Address that with President Zuma at the helm the people of South Africa are leaderless. It is very unfortunate that this happened when we celebrate President Mandela. President Mandela was the custodian of high moral values and set a very good example as the head of the Republic.”
He went on to say, “It is very disturbing that the State of the Nation Address is extremely quiet about this important leadership quality. It appears that the nation is deliberately led to lawlessness, with absolutely no morals and respect for its people.”
This statement was objected to by the ANC through a point of order upon which the Deputy Speaker had undertaken to revert with a ruling. In her ruling today, the Deputy Speaker ordered Mr George to withdraw his statement and when he refused to do that on the basis that he did not say anything in contravention of the rules of Parliament, he was subsequently asked to leave the house by the Deputy Speaker.
All the COPE MP’s fully support and firmly stands by Mr George’s refusal to withdraw his statement.
COPE is utterly disappointed by the lack of impartiality displayed by Parliaments Deputy Speaker and regards her refusal to allow points of order called by the opposition members as an abuse of power. This demonstration today crystallizes the ruling party’s belief that they have absolute power to repress the rights of citizens including that of free of speech.
COPE is vindicated by the Deputy Speaker’s actions that indeed the state of our nation is sad, considering the fact that she failed to correctly apply the rules of parliament, even with powerful tools at her disposal, the Hansard, she misquoted and misinterpreted Mr George’s speech. Ms Mfeteko also failed to afford him a chance to explain and other members to raise points of order. This is very clear that the ruling party did not learn from the De Lille ruling by the Western Cape high court.
COPE appreciates the support of the opposition parties who in solidarity walked out in protest of not being afforded a chance to raise a point of order.
“Ms Mfeteko’s conduct leaves much to be desired, it has left a very sour taste if not bitter in our mouths. It actually is unbelievable that whenever they have a chance, the ruling party invokes Madiba’s legacy on everything that they do. No sir, Madiba did not stand for repression neither will he support it now”, said Dandala.
The right of parliamentary members to freedom of speech is supremely held up by the constitution and clarified by the various statutes of this very important institution, Parliament.
The Congress of the People is dismayed that the Deputy Speaker even when corrected, refused to accept that she may be wrong and chose force the hand of the ruling party instead of recognising that she made a ruling that infringed on Mr. George’s right to free speech according to her interpretation. COPE acknowledges her powers to make rulings, however we reject with contempt that she did not equally afford our MP an opportunity to explain himself as stated in the member’s rulebook article 69. (1).
“The ANC will not dissuade us from our mission. The fact the speaker did not afford COPE and the DA a chance to raise a point of order and then allow remaining members to speak on the issue, is baffling”, said COPE’s Chief Whip.
The deputy speaker’s actions are a clear indication that her ruling was not based on the rules of parliament but was a political decision hence the vitriol by the likes of Minister Mbalula yesterday. The Congress of the People rejects Minister Mbalula’s off the wall remarks about our intentions for rejecting President’s Zuma uninspiring speech and for the minister to reduce this simply to the so called ‘hatred of Zuma by COPE’ is rejected with contempt. COPE will not be intimidated from criticising all public representatives regardless of their popularity.
End…

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Issued by the Congress of the People in Parliament
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