The DA has filed an application in the Western Cape High Court seeking a declaration that the deployment of the army in the parliamentary precinct for non-ceremonial purposes was unconstitutional and unlawful, says a TimesLIVE report. This is after President Jacob Zuma’s State of the Nation Address descended into chaos on Thursday night amid claims that armed soldiers were deployed to bully opposition MPs and journalists.

DA leader Mmusi Maimane said during a media briefing that the party was headed to court to ensure ‘the gradual securitisation and militarisation of Parliament is halted once and for all’. He added the presence of the SANDF ‘in a way that far exceeded a mere ceremonial role‚ can never be tolerated again. Armed military police‚ with live ammunition‚ on the precinct of Parliament is completely untenable in a constitutional democracy‚’ said Maimane.

‘Further‚ the excessive use of force by the parliamentary security forces‚ the use of pepper spray in the public gallery‚ and the Speaker’s flouting of proper procedure for the expulsion of members from the chamber should all be declared unlawful and unconstitutional.’

Maimane added: ‘Our court action is to ensure that the integrity of Parliament is restored‚ and that we can make the work of Parliament about the people of SA once more. It ought to be an institution in which we can fight for the poor and the excluded. And an institution which vigorously holds power to account.’

Full TimesLIVE report

The Sunday Times says it has information that police were used to remove EFF MPs from Parliament. The information from several separate and independent sources in the security forces, claims as many as 60 public order protection police from across the country were deployed into Parliament on Thursday night. It says the riot police were transported in minibuses and a police truck normally used for prisoners. The order for their deployment is said to have come from the national police headquarters. The riot police helped chamber staff forcibly remove EFF MPs from the chamber. They were brought in after intelligence sources received information that the EFF wanted Parliament evacuated to disrupt Zuma’s address. Parliament continues to deny that there was a police presence in the National Assembly despite detailed evidence the Sunday Times has gathered. The report notes a police presence in the National Assembly is in breach of an order of the Western Cape High Court (Cape Town), which declared it unconstitutional for police to remove MPs from the chamber during a sitting. Parliament spokesperson Manelisi Wolela rejected the allegations. He added that Parliament was aware of the legal implications of doing this and the High Court judgment.

Full Sunday Times report (subscription needed)

Parliament, however, has demanded an investigation into EFF MPs who ‘brutally attacked’ the so-called White Shirts, says a report in Die Burger. Eight members of the parliamentary protection corps are receiving medical treatment and counselling after ‘being hit with hard hats, bricks, and fists', said parliamentary spokesperson Manelisi Wolela. Speaker Baleka Mbete and NCOP chair Thandi Modise have instructed Parliament secretary Gengezi Mgidlana to set up a committee to probe the allegations. They say video evidence clearly show that the parliamentary officers were ‘merely doing their job’ when they were assaulted. The report notes that although the video material provided by Modise and Mbete shows how an EFF MP used a hard hat as weapon, it is also clear that an officer in a white shirt gripped another EFF MP by the head as he was physically lifted out of the chambers.

Full report in Die Burger (subscription needed)