Parliament – “Honourable members can you stop using filthy language in this house?” came the weary plea from Deputy Speaker Lechesa Tsenoli on Wednesday as sparks flew and electioneering got the upper hand in the debate on President Jacob Zuma’s state of the nation address.
After a long, tense afternoon in which DA chief whip John Steenhuisen was ordered out of the house, Water and Sanitation Minister Nomvula Mokonyane broke off from her speech to tell somebody in the DA benches she could not bothered by him “saying bullshit” in objection to a point she was making on the opposition party’s failure to build decent toilets in the Western Cape.
Asked who had said it, Mokonyane pointed and said “that man there who looks like a verkrampte”. It drew immediate objection, including from Tsenoli, and DA MP Hermanus Groenewald walked to the microphone and said “Bushes, I said they used bushes”.
Tsenoli said it appeared perfectly feasible that the minister and the MP had misunderstood each other and ordered Mokonyane to withdraw her remark. As more noise came from the DA, ANC chief whip Stone Sizani snapped at Tsenoli: “The DA is disrupting the speaker deliberately. Why are you allowing it?'”
Mokonyane did not mention the drought ravaging five provinces in her speech. Instead she devoted much of it to criticising the DA’s track record in service delivery and repeatedly said the party did not care about black lives, only about black votes. It was a point made by several ANC speakers in the debate that is taking place a few months before municipal polls.
Earlier sparks flew when Steenhuisen told Raseriti Tau, the deputy chairman of the National Council of Provinces, who was presiding over the debate at that point, he was talking “rubbish” for ruling Cope leader Mosiuoa Lekota out of order for referring to factions in the ruling party.
Steenhuisen accused Tau of bias against the opposition and was ordered out of the chamber. In parting he told Tau he was happy to leave: “It will spare me listening to your rubbish.”
At this, the DA caucus stood up to applaud Steenhuisen, and chant “go, go” at Tau, who said he had no choice but to “ask the DA to leave”.
United Democratic Movement MP Nqabayomzi Kwankwa pleaded for reason, telling Tau that Lekota had not impugned the dignity of an MP because he had not referred to an individual.
The DA remained put and as the debate resumed Kwankwa again rose and asked Tau to clarify what he had ruled in relation to the DA caucus. He said the public was following the debate on television and there could not be a perception of bias.
“We don’t want the people to think that we have rules for the Democratic Alliance and the Economic Freedom Fighters.”
Steenhuisen later sent a letter to Speaker Baleka Mbete in which he said he regretted the tone of the exchange but noted that he had not withdrawn the word “rubbish” and expected her to withdraw Tau’s ruling.
African News Agency
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