EFF calls for Parliament to be fully reopened

The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) has called for Parliament to be fully reopened and MP’s must meet physically to conduct business of Parliament, which is passing legislations and oversight of the executive.

The red berets have also demanded that the temporary measures that were put in place due to Covid-19 lockdown regulations must be immediately suspended because the regulations are no longer applicable.

“In the meeting which was supposed to be physically held with the Speaker of the National Assembly and attended by all Chief Whips, the EFF proposed that one of the immediate measures must be utilisation of Oliver Tambo Community Hall in Khayelitsha as a temporary place for the National Assembly plenary sessions.”

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“The Community Hall will be suitable because it is spacious and closer to all the Parliamentary villages where majority of members of parliament reside,” the party said.

Relocation of Parliament to Tshwane

The EFF said the relocation of Parliament to Tshwane is also logically superior.

“It will mean that the ministers, president, institutions, departments and agencies that account to Parliament will not waste money Travelling to Cape Town to be held accountable.”

“Additionally, a Parliament in Tshwane will make it easier for civil society formations and communities to make oral submissions to laws before parliament because it will be possible for people from Limpopo, North West, Mpumalanga, Northern Cape, Free State, KwaZulu-Natal and Eastern Cape to drive in and out of Tshwane to make oral submissions to laws and lodge petitions and still go back home the same day,” the EFF said.

The EFF has called on all political parties and the presiding officers to agree on the option of Oliver Tambo Hall in Khayelitsha as a temporary place for all National Assembly plenary sessions.

“Our demand, which we will do everything to realise, is that Parliament must be fully reopened and all members must physically meet to fulfil their constitutional obligations,” the EFF said

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