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| Red Sea: The EFF has struggled to get the positive sentiment it gets at events, rallies, and on social media to translate into actual voters at the polls. (Delwyn Verasamy/M&G) |
The EFF is in court in a last-minute bid to attend Thursday's State of the Nation Address, but stricter rules are in place to ban interrupting the President's speech in which the election date could be announced. The new rules for joint sittings of the National Assembly and the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) expressly ban repeated points of order to the same issue and require a dress code "befitting the dignity and decorum of the House." Parliamentarians who are removed physically or from the virtual platform will be referred for a decision on further disciplinary proceedings.
Crucially, the new joint sitting rules expressly provide for the use of "such force as may be reasonably necessary to overcome any resistance" when removing a rowdy MP. The rules now allow weapon-carrying security services into the House "in extraordinary circumstances in terms of security policy."
The EFF MPs' guilty verdicts for contempt of Parliament stem from this incident. The new joint sitting rules were adopted with a vote of 297 for and 23 EFF MPs against on 6 December 2023, signaling the EFF isolation on the parliamentary benches. It is a blow for the EFF leaders to miss February's high-profile political events from Sona and its debate on the Budget on 21 February.
Parliament would hope for a smoother Sona with the toughened rules, the strategically timed suspension of Malema and the others, and opposing EFF court bids to overturn sanctions. The sanction of suspension for February 2024 was for contempt of Parliament for disrupting the 2023 Sona.
With Sona security and prep done, speculation is rife that the President will announce the election date. That means MPs must roll up their sleeves and get the Electoral Matters Amendment Bill passed before the poll. With primarily technical amendments to bring independent candidates into the political funding and donation declaration regimen, the much anticipated 2024 elections can't happen until it's in force.
To meet tight law-making timeframes, the National Assembly and NCOP home affairs committees will sit together this week to be briefed and hold public hearings on Tuesday and hear departmental and IEC responses on Thursday. If the elections are proclaimed for May, and if the pattern of the 2019 elections holds, Parliament is set to rise at the end of March.
