Parliament is moving quickly to charge two EFF MPs for calling President Cyril Ramaphosa a criminal, and for disobeying the Speaker’s orders in June last year.
Sunday World has seen the charge sheet formulated by parliament’s powers and privileges committee.
In the firing line are the Red Berets national spokesperson Sinawo Thambo and his MP colleague, Naledi Chirwa.
The duo has since been summoned to a hearing scheduled for October 11-13, during which they are expected to be grilled and plead their case.
But Thambo, who received the charge sheet on Friday, appears defiant, and continues to call Ramaphosa a criminal.
A caption on Ramaphosa’s picture on Thambo’s X account defiantly describes Ramaphosa as “criminal, tsotsi, igintsa”.
In the charge sheet, Thambo is charged with participating in and causing “disruption and chaos” during Ramaphosa’s appearance in parliament on June 9 and 10 last year.
The committee, on the first account, said he is allegedly guilty of contempt of parliament for refusing to obey the presiding officer’s order for him to stop “creating disorder and interruption in the House”.
In the second charge, the committee said: “When the president responded to his Budget Vote Speech, you made serious allegations against the president that he was a criminal, without adequate substantiation or following the correct procedure.”
On the day in question, just seconds after Ramaphosa assumed the podium in the assembly, Thambo rose “on a point of order”.
When Speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula indulged him, he charged that Ramaphosa had betrayed his oath of office.
“The president of the Republic of South Africa has been charged with contravening the Combating of Corrupt Activities Act, with contravening the Organised Crimes Act due to money laundering, kidnapping and bribery,” he said before the ANC and DA MPs heckled him.
However, he was not deterred and continued: “We do not want to be complicit by allowing the president to address us when he is criminally charged.”
The House descended into chaos, with several EFF MPs coming to Thambo’s defence, and Chirwa fuelling the fire further by yelling at Mapisa-Nqakula.
The two MPs were then violently ejected from the House.
Thambo’s remarks came at the height of the Phala Phala revelation by former spy boss Arthur Fraser, who lifted the lid on cash (dollars) that was stored and stolen from Ramaphosa’s farm.
Charge three requires Thambo to demonstrate why he should not be found guilty for undermining Mapisa-Nqakula’s authority. The fourth charge is similar to the third one.
The fifth and last charge alleged that Thambo behaved in an unruly manner, which was detrimental to the dignity and decorum of parliament.
At their hearing, Thambo and Chirwa will be allowed to call witnesses and be assisted by any fellow MP or lawyer – at their own cost.
“At the conclusion of the hearing, the committee will make a decision as to whether or not the allegations against you are proven. If so, an appropriate penalty/sanction will be imposed.”
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