The FF Plus welcomes the 18-month prison sentence, suspended for five years, which the Cape Town Regional Court handed to the EFF’s Secretary-General Marshall Dlamini for assaulting a policeman in 2019.
Dlamini assaulted the policeman, warrant officer Johan Carstens, on 7 February 2019 after the SONA in the National Assembly and broke his glasses.
It is, therefore, only fitting that the court sentenced Dlamini to pay a fine of R6 000 or serve three months’ imprisonment for malicious damage to property.
The sentence sends a strong message to politicians and MPs to refrain from using violence, also in the Houses of Parliament, and police members should be protected against such conduct.
In South Africa, a Member of Parliament who receives a prison sentence of more than 12 months, without the option of paying a fine, may not serve as an MP. Should that be the case, the EFF will have to recall Dlamini.
The EFF should suspend him for his misconduct, in any case, and recall him as MP.
This sentence will, hopefully, deter the EFF from its often aggressive and defiant attitude towards parliamentary procedures. Politicians are clearly not above the law, especially when it comes to their conduct on parliamentary grounds.
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