EFF is setting a bad example

What happens in our Parliament these days makes for depressing television. The scuffle that broke out last week after National Assembly Speaker Baleka Mbete ordered Economic Freedom Fighters Members of Parliament to leave the House was unedifying..

This time matters were taken too far as the House was turned into a boxing ring involving EFF MPs and security guards from Parliament’s protection services. To say it was an ugly scene is an understatement. Now, ours is not the first Parliament where a brawl and a fistfight has occurred. But taking into account the history of political violence in our country that should be cold comfort. The last thing South Africa needs are citizens emulating outside what they have seen taking place inside Parliament.

Thankfully, and although underlying the existing political tension in the country, the fistfights have not escalated to where rival politicians punch each other. The restraint so far must be praised and encouraged but one is concerned one of these days things might snap. With the local government elections approaching, the conduct of our political leaders becomes important. An impression must not be created that it is acceptable to resort to violence whenever there are differences.

When the EFF came to Parliament we knew things were never going to be the same – in fact the party said as much. Given its youthfulness and somewhat abrasive approach, things were likely to get a bit more heated up and robust. But chaos is not what we expected. Debate and the quality of one’s argument are what the voters expect, even in the face of what sometimes looks like misguided majoritarianism.

We had a taste of this when the EFF took President Jacob Zuma to the Constitutional Court over the Nkandla matter and won, in spite of it being a minority in Parliament. Citizens who had dismissed it as an upstart political party sat up and took note. There is no gainsaying the fact that the EFF’s victory in the ConCourt earned it some kudos as constitutionalists. And so did its victory in December 2014 when it challenged in the Western Cape High Court the Speaker in the matter of suspensions and pay stoppages of its MPs.

It is in the use of the rule of law rather than in its chaotic tendencies that the EFF looks better and inspires hope. Not that political contestation must always take place in our courts. That would make politics boring and reduce the significance of winning at the polls. Be that as it may, the point must be made that unless the EFF masters the balance between provisions in the law and its unconventional methods inside Parliament and uses its court victories strategically, it may alienate sections of our society.

But it is not only the EFF’s behaviour that we must take issue with. There are MPs from other parties who have in the recent past disobeyed the presiding officers and behaved in a manner unbecoming of their standing as public representatives. In fact what has been going on lately is enough for parents to want to keep their children from watching Parliamentary debates on TV.

There was a particularly nasty scene last week when the cameras showed a man kicking a woman who was on the floor. What kind of message is that kind of footage sending to society and our children in particular? We may not be far off from the days when younger kids will say “well I saw a Member of Parliament saying or doing something mean to this person so maybe it's okay for me to do the same.”

We need to bring civility and decorum back into Parliamentary debates. I have heard children say about some of the scenes in Parliament “no one at school would be allowed to behave that way and get away it.” And then we wonder why politicians are generally held in relatively low esteem. The bar for public decency in our Parliament continues to be ever so lowered with no sense that children, let alone the world, could be watching.

The Speaker herself seemed to have lost control over the House. None other than President Zuma said as much the other day when he urged her to seriously consider bringing the House into some order. That, I guess, will require more than just imposing the strongest sanctions against errant MPs. There is a need for the Speaker to regain the confidence of the opposition party whips and MPs. That would take some frank dialogue and candidness between the Speaker and all our MPs and a decidedly collective view that says enough is enough.

If Parliamentarians themselves do not worry, and seek to do something, about the emerging spiteful and puerile tendencies among them, then we must admit something has gone awry with our public culture.