Pan Africanist Congress of Azania (PAC) MP Mzwanele Nyhontso has welcomed a decision of the Western Cape High Court that he should be reinstated as the party’s representative in parliament.
Nyhontso, the sole MP for the PAC, was earlier stripped of his membership of parliament by Speaker Thandi Modise following communication from the party to remove him.
Modise argued that she acted in accordance with the Constitution.
The court is scheduled to hear the matter on the 15 February 2021 and the court has ordered that Nyhontso be reinstated in the meantime.
The court’s decision followed an urgent application launched by one section of the PAC against another section’s decision to remove Nyhontso, which the Speaker activated in terms of section 47(3)(c) of the Constitution.
Section 47 states that a person loses membership of the National Assembly if that person “ceases to be a Member of the party that nominated that person as a member of the Assembly.”
Nyhontso has expressed relief at the ruling.
“We feel happy that the PAC voice is not silenced. We feel happy that the voters who voted for the PAC their voice will still be heard in Parliament. But of course as part of the way forward, we are coming back on the 15th of February to court and we want to get an order that Moloto and Dlamini are expelled persons in PAC. They’ve been dragging the good name of the PAC into mud and now it has to stop.”
