WATCH: EFF members forcefully removed during Sopa in Eastern Cape
The EFF MPs were removed from the Eastern Cape legislature for wearing their trademark red overalls.
The EFF managed to grab the attention for all the wrong reasons, prompting calls to hit them in their pockets, for disrupting proceedings. Picture: Jacques Nelles
During Premier Oscar Mabuyane’s state of the province address (Sopa) on Tuesday, EFF members were removed from the Eastern Cape provincial legislature following complaints of their “inappropriate attire” in the house, DispatchedLIVE reported.
The EFF members were dressed in their trademark red overalls.
Speaker Helen Sauls-August instructed the members to leave the house after an argument ensued.
Security staff forcefully removed them from the house after the members ignored Sauls-August’s instruction.
DA provincial leader Nqaba Bhanga said that the house should avoid repeating the chaos at the North West’s Sopa; where EFF MPLs were forcefully removed after interrupting Premier Job Mokgoro during his address.
After his remarks, Sauls-August instructed Bhanga to leave the house, which he refused to do and remained.
Sauls-August said she would refer Bhanga to the ethics committee for his refusal to leave the house.
EFF Eastern Cape leader Yazini Tetyane said they had been removed for questioning Speaker Helen Sauls-August on rules regarding dress code.
“She suspended the rules. She indicated we must not raise point of orders. They said we must leave the house and we fought back. The bone of contention is the dress code. The Constitution applies to all provinces; why is this province any different. How can the house follow a rule that bars us from wearing overalls to the house?”
Relentless in his resolve, Tetyane said the party caucus would come dressed in red overalls when they debate the State of the Province Address next week.
Reacting to the incident, former EFF spokesperson Mbuyiseni Ndlozi tweeted: “Nothing is more unconstitutional than removing public representatives voted for by hundreds of thousands of people simply because you don’t like how they are dressed. The right to hold public office belongs in Bill of Rights 19.3(a) without it, ours would cease to be a democracy.”
https://twitter.com/lizTandwa/status/1232272644361330690
https://twitter.com/lizTandwa/status/1232274471244980224
(Additional reporting News24)
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