Power & Priviliges committee finds 16 EFF MPs guilty of contempt of Parliament
The 16 red berets were charged after storming Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan at the podium when he was delivering his Budget vote in July 2019.
CAPE TOWN - Parliament’s Powers and Privileges committee has found 16 Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) Members of Parliament (MPs) guilty of contempt of Parliament.
The 16 red berets were charged after storming Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan at the podium when he was delivering his Budget vote in July 2019.
After hearings last year, in which the EFF members did not take part, it was found that there was overwhelming evidence that they had broken parliamentary rules and the Powers and Privileges Act.
READ: Parliament finds 16 EFF MPs guilty of misconduct for disrupting Gordhan speech
On Thursday afternoon, the Powers and Privileges Committee found the 16 EFF members guilty as charged, while the party’s Mbuyiseni Ndlozi objected and insisted that they were innocent.
Committee chairperson Philly Mapulane spelled out what would happen next: "Those members found guilty, a communique will be sent to those members and they will be given an opportunity to make a representation. As soon as we receive the representation within the stipulated time-frames, we will then convene a meeting of this committee to consider the representation and to finalise on the sanctions."
The EFF MPs did not take part in the hearings and the party challenged in court their constitutionality, claiming that an African National Congress (ANC) majority on the committee meant there could be no fair outcome.
Today’s meeting went ahead in the absence of any interdict halting proceedings.
Download the Eyewitness News app to your iOS or Android device.
