Court rules that Mbete can't send cops into Parliament

The Democratic Alliance (DA) today claimed that it was victorious in its application to have section 11 of the Powers‚ Privileges and Immunities of Parliament Act declared unconstitutional by the Western Cape High Court.

Newly elected DA leader Mnusi Maimane took to Twitter to say: “We have won our case to ensure that Speaker Mbete & the ANC never send the SAPS into Parli‚ stopping us from fighting for the people of SA”.

The party’s application was brought before the court after the chaotic scenes that ensued when Parliament’s Speaker Baleka Mbete ordered police officers to remove MPs from the assembly during Jacob Zuma’s State of the Nation Address.

Former Hawks spokesman McIntosh Polela? tweeted: “The Western Cape High Court has declared an act which allowed police to arrest & remove EFF MPs from Parliament unconstitutional”.

Some social media commentators were quick to point out that Tuesday’s ruling could provide opposition parties with sufficient ammunition to mount a court bid to have Mbete removed as speaker of the National Assembly.

Chairperson of the DA’s federal executive James Selfe said ahead of Tuesday’s court application: “Part of the job of members of parliament is to hold the president and other members of the executive to account‚ and it would be a sad day for our democracy if the presiding officers were allowed to have members arrested and removed from the precinct of Parliament for fulfilling their constitutional responsibility‚ however much the executive may not like the message or how it is delivered.”