Proceedings in Parliament has been making news for all kinds of wrong reasons, especially regarding how it has become a circus of insults and thuggery.
What is supposedly comical about the state of our Parliament is how, in the mayhem of verbal abuse, the members of parliament are addressed as “honourable”.
The style or title of honour is common to the countries of the Commonwealth. It is taken from the French honourable and ultimately derived from the Latin honorabilis (“worthy of honour”).
If you study the word, you discover it has to do with people and actions that are honest, fair, and worthy of respect.
Therefore, an honourable person is someone who believes in truth and doing the right thing, and even tries to live up to those high principles.
Based on these rather loose definitions, is it not a mockery of our intelligence as South Africans to call these members of parliament honourable?
These are supposedly to be man and women who stand for truth, and we should laud their honourary conduct.
Yet, based on South Africa’s history over the last decade of political debauchery and corruption, so much for the honourable title. It might as well be chucked into the bin.
Talking of mockery, Communications Minister Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams became the Twitter joke when she said the following: ‘I have never been to Switzerland, I went to Geneva’.
The minister had been responding to allegations that she travelled to Switzerland with her husband to celebrate their wedding anniversary last year – at the cost of the taxpayer. She then corrected herself by saying they went to France.
Yes citizens of this land, was this but an honest mistake, or is indicative of how far we have fallen on the trustworthy barometer?
Back home, gender-based violence activists were also left enraged by the display of dirty politics at the State of the Nation Address debate and expressed their concern about how policymakers tended to end the dialogue after using it to score political points off each other.
This is after the ANC questioned Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) leader Julius Malema on whether he had abused his wife behind closed doors.
At the insistence of several other MPs, Malema then responded by saying the President had abused his [ex] wife.
So how does such distinguishable behaviour help to save our country economically?
Some may laugh at the gutter politics and MP’s being called fools, the honour of this nation is now under serious threat.
Talking about Parliament is important because it impacts all of us. Is it any wonder as to why our country is turning into a fool’s paradise?
And it seems it is these MP’s who have little regard for truth, respect or honesty who live in this paradise of happiness yet without comprehending the woes of SA.
At the end of the day, the actions of our MP’s, not just in Parliament but generally in life, is an insult to us the citizens. MP’s can storm out of a room, but for us on the ground level, we are left to battle over the scraps, surviving the wreckage of poor leadership.
To quote the Bible, honour is not fitting for a fool. Enough said.
