Andile Mngxitama and Khanyisile Litchfield-Tshabalala during a media briefing on February 17, 2015 in Johannesburg, South Africa. (File photo by Gallo Images / Foto24 / Theana Breugem)
Parliament programming committee has ordered Black First Land First’s (BLF) Andile Mngxitama to apologise for disrupting the meeting of the joint committees on finance and trade and industry last week.
During the heated meeting, it was reported that Mngxitama called chairperson of portfolio committee on trade and industry Joanne Fubbs a fascist. This infuriated Yunus Carrim, chairperson of finance portfolio committee, who almost came to blows with a defiant Mngxitama.
The joint committee meeting was convened to assess the transformation of the finance sector.
Independent Media is reporting that at the meeting of the programming committee earlier today, MPs expressed disgust at the conduct of the BLF. Deputy speaker Lechesa Tsenoli called for the organisation to apologise to MPs. He also said further action would be taken against Mngxitama.
It is understood that visibly irritated MPs also questioned how BLF was invited to make a presentation on the transformation of the finance sector in the first place.
When contacted for comment, Mngxitama was derisive. “I am laughing because this is laughable. Mainly because no one from parliament has contacted me to communicate anything.”
“My brother, I want you to put it in on record, this is rubbish, this is nonsense,” he continued.
“I will not apologise to the stupid speaker and deputy speaker. The deputy speaker is disoriented. They [speaker and deputy] are the ones defiling the dignity of that parliament. They are running that place like a shebeen. They are incompetent and think parliament is a shebeen,” he said.
“Please put it on record that we shall not apologise. The disruption was caused because those people are incompetent. They don’t know what they are doing. Tell them I say they are stupid.”
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