EFF’s red overalls cause a stir in Gauteng legislature

Only a day after police forcibly removed EFF members from the chamber after their attire was was deemed inappropriate, the party’s representatives were barred from entering the chamber once again due to their attire.

The New Age newspaper reported that Secretary to the Legislature Peter Skosana said the EFF had been made aware of the issues regarding its dress code of red overalls and domestic worker outfits and needed to comply with the rules.

“As you are aware, we had an incident [on Tuesday] in which members of the EFF had to be forcibly removed from the house as they had not dressed appropriately,” he said.

On 1 July, Gauteng Speaker Ntombi Mekgwe ruled that the seven EFF members dressed in red overalls leave the house on the grounds that their attire was inappropriate.

However, police were called to remove the EFF members from the chamber and an altercation between police and the party’s members ensued.

“The speaker further advised members that besides being ejected from the house, they may face further appropriate sanctions,” the legislature said in a statement.

Meanwhile, the EFF national leadership has condemned what it described as the violent and undemocratic decision of the ANC speaker to remove its members from the Gauteng legislature.

“During the debate on the State of the Province, the Speaker of the Gauteng Legislature, Mekgwe, called police to remove Economic Freedom Fighters members from parliament because they were dressed in worker clothes,” spokesperson Mbuyiseni Ndlozi said in a statement.

“The EFF will never be bossed around to abandon the worker overalls in parliaments across the country because this is who it represents. No amount of beating by the ANC police will ever submit the EFF into abandoning the red overalls and domestic workers’ dress codes.”