EFF feels vindicated by ConCourt judgment

The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) on Friday welcomed the Constitutional Court judgment which declared that the use of police to remove members of parliament from the National Assembly was unconstitutional.

EFF spokesman Mbuyiseni Ndlozi said its MPs were assaulted and forcibly removed from the National Assembly by police in 2015 during President Jacob Zuma's state of the nation address when they demanded that Zuma respond to the question on when was he going to pay back the money for non-security upgrades at his Nkandla home.

“The EFF has consistently argued that the forcible removal of MPs from the National Assembly is unlawful and violates their constitutional privilege of freedom of speech‚” Ndlozi said.

He said the EFF had also argued in Parliament's rules committee that MPs should never be forcibly removed for the things they said‚ however uncomfortable.

Ndlozi said the EFF believed the only time MPs should be removed from the National Assembly was when they posed a danger to security or lives of fellow MPs.