Mamabolo wants parliament to act against Steenhuisen for crime wardens remark
Gauteng Finance MEC Jacob Mamabolo on Tuesday threatened to lay an ethics complaint against DA leader John Steenhuisen.
Mamabolo wants the DA leader to apologise for his controversial remarks on the Gauteng Crime Prevention Wardens.
Mamabolo raised the issue during the debate on the State of the Nation Address in Cape Town on Tuesday.
Steenhuisen has come under fire from some quarters for labelling the wardens, who are also known as Amapanyaza after the Gauteng premier, "untrainable drunkards wearing ill-fitting PEP store uniforms".
The remarks, made during a DA event in Soshanguve, have angered many South Africans, some of whom have accused him of racism.
But Steenhuisen has so far refused to apologise, sayin he believes the public is overreacting.
On Tuesday, Mamabolo challenged Steenhuisen to withdraw his remarks.
"When there was a popular request for him to apologise, he refused to apologise. Even when members of the crime prevention wardens said that they were deeply hurt by what you said.
"They did nothing to you. They have done absolutely nothing to you and you are busy doing this, standing by your point that they are drunkards. You must apologise, honourable member, and you must do it immediately," said Mamabolo.
The MEC also urged parliament to act against Steenhuisen, should an apology not be forthcoming.
"Honourable members, we know that this parliament has been very decisive in dealing with people that bring parliament into disrepute, and therefore we request that parliament looks into the conduct of the honourable member," Mamabolo said.
"We believe that he has violated his oath of office because he is not allowed to make this type of racist remarks,"
The 6000 cohorts were recruited in April last year as part of the premier’s commitment to fight crime in the province and they went through a three-month intensive training programme.
The group was trained to strengthen the existing law enforcement officials in the fight against crime at the ward level.
Following their graduation, the wardens were deployed to target hotspot areas in crime prevention operations, however, the program was met with a lot of criticism.
They have recently been given the same legal status as provincial traffic officers.
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