Dignity will be restored back to parliament: Ramaphosa

Leaders of political parties have agreed to work together to restore the dignity and integrity of Parliament, Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Tuesday.

Speaking after a meeting with the leaders, Ramaphosa said a report on the disciplinary process against 20 Economic Freedom Fighters MPs would thus be held in abeyance while parties searched for a political solution instead.

In return, Ramaphosa said opposition leaders agreed to show respect to the executive.

"This is a house where the laws of our country are made and this is a house where the dignity of our people as a whole is actually represented," he said.

A committee was being set up to address matters which had occurred in the past and to deal with the "proper functioning" of Parliament.

Ramaphosa would lead the committee alongside deputies, Democratic Alliance parliamentary leader Mmusi Maimane and African National Congress chief whip Stone Sizani.

The first committee meeting would take place next week.

"This committee will address all these matters politically and thereafter give guidance," Ramaphosa said.

There was a plan to meet opposition leaders four times a year. The 11 leaders in attendance on Tuesday included Sizani, Maimane, EFF MP Khanyisile Litchfield-Tshabalala, the United Democratic Movement's Bantu Holomisa, the African Christian Democratic Party's Kenneth Meshoe, the Congress of the People's Mosiuoa Lekota, and the Freedom Front Plus's Pieter Mulder.