Parliament's full joint rules committee will have to decide if so-called 'bouncers' can be called in to deal with unruly members during joint sittings.
This is after the sub-committee on joint rules, attended only by African National Congress and Economic Freedom Fighters MPs, could not agree on the draft rules for joint sittings in Parliament on Thursday.
Joint sittings include National Assembly and National Council of Provinces MPs.
The sub-committee was discussing the addition of a new rule to joint sittings, which would be adapted from the current National Assembly rule calling for the removal of MPs by protection services if they refused a direct order to leave from a presiding officer.
With EFF MP Hlengiwe Maxon rejecting the rule outright and her colleague, Sam Matiase, calling the process a "steamrolling by the ANC", chairperson Richard Mdakane said they were not likely to come to an agreement.
He referred it to the full joint rules committee, where MPs would have to vote on the rule.
EFF NCOP MP Tebogo Mokwele said using the same rule in the joint sittings that had been passed in the National Assembly was like using the same penalty to punish children for different infractions.
Mdakane said they were not likely to convince each other as there were "closed-minded people" in the meeting.
Maxon said they would continue to reject the rule on all platforms.
"There is no way that we can support such a rule that members of Parliament must be removed for speaking the truth. We can't apologise for that."
Source: News24
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