Tsenoli halts motions in House

National Assembly Deputy Speaker Lechesa Tsenoli called a halt to members rising to deliver motions shortly after 5.30pm on Thursday, telling MPs they were breaking House rules.

"I'm suggesting that we've long crossed the boundaries of reasonableness. In fact, not even reasonableness -- it's acting outside the rules," he said, bringing an end to a noisy opposition filibuster ahead of debate on the African National Congress's Nkandla report.

For over two hours, Democratic Alliance and Economic Freedom Fighters MPs defiantly moved a continuous stream of motions, many seemingly frivolous, before Tsenoli stopped them.

"You create a situation where the rules do not matter anymore," he told them.

Tsenoli told DA Chief Whip John Steenhuisen, who had earlier told him that the opposition was not breaking rules by tabling motions, that the situation could not continue, and ordered the House to move on to hearing members' statements.

Earlier, Speaker Baleka Mbete had sought to bar the opposition from tabling motions, ruling that since the sitting was due to be long, she would not allow unscheduled items.

Following 30 minutes of pandemonium, she relented, at which point MPs in the opposition benches raised a sea of white pages to signal they had many motions to move.