PARLIAMENTARY BEHAVIOUR
MPs urged not to tailor house rules to EFF
Disruptors EFF have revolutionised Parliament's sittings but have also created a rift between members and the presiding officers
Rules ad hoc committee chairman Mathole Motshekga has warned his fellow ANC MPs to resist the temptation of recrafting the parliamentary rules to sanction the EFF. Parliament’s ad hoc committee on the review of the Powers, Privileges and Immunities of Parliament and Provincial Legislatures Act is racing to make draft amendments to the act, as have been ordered by the Constitutional Court. The arrival of the EFF to Parliament revolutionised the manner in which house sittings take place but also created a rift between members and the presiding officers over disturbances and what should be deemed as parliamentary behaviour. In 2016 the Constitutional Court ruled in a matter between the DA and the National Assembly that freedom of speech in both houses, as contemplated in the Constitution, was subject only to relevant house rules and could not be regulated in an act of Parliament.
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