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The EFF wants the Powers and Privileges Committee to subpoena National Assembly Speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula to appear before the committee next week. It wants Parliament to respond by the close of business tomorrow.
The subpoena relates to a separate hearing involving 13 EFF MPs who are expected to appear before the committee next week. The EFF has approached the Western Cape High Court today. The 13 were removed during the Presidency’s Budget vote in June last year and during the oral reply session in August last year. Tomorrow, the Assembly is expected to consider the sanctions of six other EFF MPs including the party leader Julius Malema.
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The EFF’s lawyers say Mapisa-Nqakula has to be subpoenaed to the hearing as she was the decision-maker who ordered the removal of the 13 EFF MPs in June and August last year.
They say they want her to explain her decision and they want to test her side of the story during the hearings. The EFF’s legal team has given Parliament until the close of business tomorrow to indicate whether Mapisa-Nqakula will be subpoenaed when the hearing starts next week.
They say failure to accede to the request, they will return to the court from Wednesday for a hearing. The court has agreed that the matter will be heard in court on Wednesday if the committee does not indicate whether Mapisa-Nqakula will be summoned to appear before it.
Meanwhile, the EFF’s lawyers say they will await the Assembly’s decision on sanctions against Malema and five other MPs for the SONA event this year. The lawyers say if the House decides to endorse the sanctions against to be effective in February next year, they will be back in court in January.
They say if the Assembly decides to make the sanctions effective in March next year, they will be back in February in court.
