OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Monday 4.00pm.
THE two members of Parliament who engaged in a fist fight on the floor of the National Assembly last Thursday were suspended from Parliament on Monday.
Eastern Cape National Party leader Dr Manie Schoeman, who has admitted to landing the first blow, was suspended from Parliament for five days, and African National Congress MP Johnny de Lange, who floored Schoeman in retaliation, has to stay out of Parliament for one day.
The suspeensions were announced in Parliament on Monday by Assembly Speaker Dr Frene Ginwala, who said the incident could only be described as a brawl. Ginwala told a hushed Assembly she was gratified that the two parties had rallied to the cause of parliamentary democracy. The combatants and their parties met on Monday morning and agreed to settle their differences in the interests of Parliament and the country.
Ginwala read out a joint statement by the ANC and the NP in which the parties took resaponsibility for their actions and their consequences.
The statement said: “The way parties manage their members and set values and codes of behaviour, will inevitably be reflected in members’ conduct in Parliament. The levels of violence and disorder in our society are already unacceptably high. The manner in which this House conducts its business, and the behaviour of members, should not give credence to the view that ours is a society in which physical and verbal abuse are acceptable norms, but should rather reinforce the founding values of the democracy of which we are custodians.”