Durban - KwaZulu-Natal Legislature Speaker Nontembeko Boyce demonstrated that she would not tolerate misbehaviour by Members of Provincial Legislature (MPLs), this when she called to order an Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) MPL over the use of a cellphone during a sitting on Thursday.
EFF MPL Nkululeko Ngubane was spotted using his phone and engaged in a conversation before eventually leaving the main chamber at the Legislature. The Speaker told the MPL that he had behaved improperly by using his cellphone when the sitting was under way.
“Phone conversations are not allowed inside the chamber, what you did was take your phone, engaged in a conversation and disturbed proceedings in the process,” said Boyce in calling the EFF MPL to apologise.
Ngubane gave a half-hearted apology, prompting the Speaker to interject. “When you apologise you do not cloud it with anything else,” Boyce stressed. The EFF MPL heeded the Speaker’s advice and made an apology.
“I apologise unconditionally,” said the EFF MPL.
Thursday’s sitting was one of the busiest for Boyce as she had to deal with many points of order from different political parties. The Legislature had three debates on Thursday on the state of local government in KZN, the Phoenix killings in July 2021 and Public Works Ad-Hoc Committee report. The state of local government in KwaZulu-Natal was the one topic that featured mainly and led to heated debate among political parties during the sitting.