Members of Parliament’s home affairs committee agreed at their meeting on Friday to probe how an adult shop managed to open its doors in front of Parliament.
”My concern is that the shop is now within the entrance to Parliament,” committee chairperson Patrick Chauke said before members of the committee voted on the Immigration Amendment Bill.
”We have a problem. The fact of the matter is that it reflects quite horribly on this Parliament.”
On Thursday, Chauke called on Director General of Home Affairs Barry Gilder to investigate how the business managed to open in front of Parliament.
”It’s really not correct that a business of this nature can just be opened right at the entrance of Parliament,” he said, drawing laughter from committee members.
”If my memory serves me well, there are regulations in place as to areas designated for this kind of business. If it is not like that, then we have a problem that we must address.”
The shop is situated on Plein Street next to Parliament Towers and Bathong travel agent, one of the companies implicated in the travel-voucher fraud scam.
Parliament Towers is one of the busiest premises in front of Parliament and mainly houses the offices of the staff of Parliament.
On Friday, it emerged that the shop had been rented by the Democratic Alliance before the party moved to another building in the same area.
Nelson Mathibe, a senior legal adviser from the Department of Home Affairs, said the Film and Publications Act does not prohibit the shop from operating at the entrance of Parliament.
”The Film and Publications Act does not contain in it any provision on which we could stop them from operating for as long as what they sell there has been properly classified,” he said.
The shop is licensed by the municipality in terms of its bylaws, Mathibe added.
”If it is properly licensed by the municipality and what they sell is classified in terms of the Films and Publications Act, there would not be anything that we can do to stop them from operating.”
Annelize van Wyk, an African National Congress MP, said municipal bylaws state that such a business cannot be opened close to a school, a church or in a highly dense residential area where residents complain about its existence.
Patrick Sibande, another ANC MP, said: ”I think this is not accepted. We are superseding the council, we are authorised to revisit some of these laws.”
Chauke said committee members will conduct their own investigation into the adult shop and report their findings to the committee.
”It is very clear that we definitely have to check something,” he said.
If there are loopholes in the Films and Publications Act, members of the committee will have to do the same exercise that ”we are doing with the Immigration Bill” to close them.
”Nothing is going to stop us,” he said. — Sapa