Two more EFF MPs suspended from Parliament business over 2022 National Assembly disruptions

CAPE TOWN - Two more Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) Members of Parliament (MPs) have been suspended from Parliamentary business and will have their salaries docked for the month of March for causing disruptions to the president’s question time in August 2022. 

It’s the latest sanction against EFF members to be endorsed by the National Assembly - after six members were banned from the house in February for a protest during the State of the Nation (SONA) address in 2023. 

READ: Parliament: New House rules to minimise SONA disruptions not aimed at any party 

But the EFF is crying foul over the punishment meted out to Nazier Paulsen and Khanya Ceza, saying Parliament is stifling opposition voices and preventing leaders from being held to account. 

Following a disciplinary hearing in December, two out of four EFF members involved in the disruptions were found to be in contempt of Parliament. 

They were removed from the chamber after insisting President Cyril Ramaphosa immediately answer questions related to the theft at his Phala Phala farm, before answering other questions on the order paper. 

African National Congress (ANC) deputy chief whip Doris Dlakude said for the past ten years, the house has had to regularly endure disruptions sparked by the EFF, which she said were childish and immature. 

“It’s a pattern, it’s conscious, it’s deliberate and it’s wilfully being done. These are not just spontaneous outbursts.”

But one of the EFF’s newest members Busisiwe Mkhwebane said the party is being browbeaten into silence. 

“This house has been shamefully reduced into a legislative militia armed in defense of the leaders of the ruling party.”

Paulsen and Ceza will now miss the last month of Parliamentary business before the house rises ahead of the elections.