Africa-Press – South-Africa. The Western Cape legislature’s Speaker, Daylin Mitchell, on Tuesday delayed a ruling related to Peter Marais, of the Freedom Front Plus, referring to ANC members as “foreigners”.
Marais made the remarks during a sitting of the house last week.
At the time, Mitchell vowed to rule on the matter because it had disrupted proceedings.
Initially, Mitchell said he was not prepared to make a ruling because the audio recordings and transcripts were not available.
He said he would be ready to make a ruling on Tuesday when the house convened again.
But, on Tuesday, Mitchell told members he would only be able to make a ruling at the next sitting, when Marais would be present.
“The records were inconclusive, and I informed the house that I would wait for the transcriptions of the proceedings and make a ruling at the next opportunity, which was today (Tuesday).”
He said:
Mitchell added that, because his ruling required a response from Marais, he would only make a ruling on the matter at the next sitting.
But opposition parties were unhappy with Mitchell’s response.
ANC members held up posters, which read: “The DA promotes racism in the province.”
The ANC’s deputy chief whip, Khalid Sayed, said: “We are contemplating action, and the Speaker must tell us in which rule it says that the member should be present before making a ruling.”
The ANC’s provincial leader, Cameron Dugmore, accused Mitchell of protecting Marais.
“You are protecting the perpetrator of this, and he cannot simply say he is not present here. Members were insulted.”
Marais has refused to apologise.
During last week’s sitting, Marais caused a stir when he said: “We call for the empowerment of coloured and Khoi emerging farmers in this province, entrepreneurs and indigent households who are on housing waiting lists as these minorities who are neglected and who received very little benefits in terms of the labour equity laws and housing, and having to compete against numerically and superior African blacks whose influx to the Western Cape has changed the demographics of the province.
“Racial tensions are increasingly building up. We call on the Western Cape government to take remedial action to prevent racial tension from escalating and flaring up because of a fight for scarce resources by the influx.”
Chaos ensued after ANC members took issue with this – which, in turn, prompted Marais to call them “foreigners”.
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