DA wants EFF MP probed over ‘monkey face’ comments

The DA has urged Parliament’s ethics committee to urgently probe Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) MP Nazier Paulsen over “offensive” Facebook posts about the coloured community.

Chief whip of the DA, Natasha Mazzone, said the party had laid a complaint against Paulsen following his “offensive and derogatory posts”.

“The DA condemns in the strongest terms the comments made by Paulsen via his Facebook page, where he refers to coloured people as ‘brown pets’ and ‘monkey face’,” Mazzone said.

The DA called on the committee to meet urgently to deal with Paulsen’s remarks “as we cannot allow a situation where members of Parliament openly use derogatory and offensive language against an entire community and get away with it”.

“These utterances are not only dehumanising, derogatory, and offensive to the coloured community, but it also goes against the ethical values and standards of behaviour that public representatives are expected to uphold.

“The DA now urges the ethics committee to urgently expedite a probe into Paulsen’s conduct, as this is not the first time we have laid a complaint of this nature against him.

“The DA has also previously referred both Paulsen and EFF leader, Julius Malema, to the ethics committee over social media post seemingly inciting violence.

“South Africa’s moral fibre has slipped down a very poisonous and gruesome path, Parliament cannot continue to allow its members to behave in this manner. Doing so sends a wrong message to people of South Africa and diminishes the standards and the values of public office.”

Compiled by Makhosandile Zulu

For more news your way, download The Citizen’s app for iOS and Android.