John Steenhuisen wants BLF banned from parliamentary meetings

During Tuesday’s meeting of the home affairs portfolio committee on Fireblade Aviation, Black First Land First (BLF) disrupted the proceedings and one of the members of BLF manhandled South African billionaire Nicky Oppenheimer.

BLF was then forcefully ejected from parliament and DA MP and chief whip John Steenhuisen has since issued a statement calling for the party to be permanently banned from parliamentary meetings due to their conduct.

Steenhuisen, after highlighting BLF leader Andile Mngxitama’s disruptive and violent history, stated: “I will be writing to the Speaker of the National Assembly Baleka Mbete to ask that the matter be investigated and that the legislature consider banning the responsible members of the BLF from attending committee meetings and parliamentary sittings.”

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Steenhuisen recalled an incident in which Mngxitama and company were ejected from a joint meeting of the finance and trade and industry committees in May 2017 after he called the committee chairperson Joanmariae Fubbs a “fascist” and got involved in a physical confrontation with chairperson Yunus Carrim.

The DA chief whip added that he will also ask that the presiding officers to lay criminal charges against those involved in terms of Section 7 of the Powers, Privileges and Immunities of Parliaments and Provincial Legislatures Act (Act 4 of 2004), “failing which, I will do so myself”.

“The important work of parliament cannot be disrupted due to this irrelevant organisation’s insatiable appetite for attention,” said Steenhuisen.

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