ActionSA is seeking a high court review of the conclusion of the National Assembly’s joint committee on ethics and members interests to vindicate EFF leader Julius Malema for his remarks promoting illegal immigration.
Malema was heard making the remarks at an EFF media conference on January 14 2021. The EFF leader called for South Africa’s borders to be opened for free movement of the people from the Southern African Development Community (SADC).
Malema was quoted as saying: “So let the borders be open, and if the gates are not going to be open for SADC, fellow SADC people please find a creative way, this is your home, your families are here.
“There are no ways anyone is going to close you out here. Lesotho and Free State are one thing, Mpumalanga and Swaziland are one thing, North West and Botswana are one thing, Limpopo and Zimbabwe are one thing. What is the point, there is no point at all.”
The parliamentary committee found that Malema’s remarks were “open to different interpretations”.
But ActionSA leader Herman Mashaba said in a statement that the findings of the committee lacked rational basis.
Mashaba said: “The fact that a committee of the National Assembly found these remarks open to interpretation is laughable and we can only plausibly conclude that Malema is being protected by the institutions of parliament.”
He added that it is a violation of the public trust when an MP openly encourages illegal immigration while South Africans continuously express their concerns and condemn the government’s inability to manage the borders and to document individuals who enter the country illegally.
“This road to review the decision of the committee will take time, but ActionSA is patient in the need to ensure that we can deliver a lesson to members of parliament to take illegal immigration seriously.
“Our first step will be to obtain the legal representations made by Mr Malema and the minutes of the deliberations of the committee. If the National Assembly will not act, ActionSA will do so without hesitation.”
Every MP takes an oath to uphold the Constitution and the law.
We should never allow a situation where MPs are advocating for our laws to be broken.
This is unconstitutional, dangerous, and during a pandemic, puts millions at risk. pic.twitter.com/X9lvWt1yi2
— Herman Mashaba (@HermanMashaba) January 14, 2021
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