The Western Cape Parliament’s session turned into a theatrical battleground on Thursday after lawmakers exchanged accusations and hurled insults like “political ornaments,” “kitchen girls,” and “garden boys” across the chamber.

The tragicomic sitting opened with ANC MPL Rachel Windvogel being carpeted for calling members on the opposite benches “murderers” and telling premier Alan Winde to “stop lying”.

Various issues were then thrashed out, including the challenges facing hung municipalities, the province’s stubbornly high murder rate and alleged racist incidents in Knysna and George.

Kicking off the sitting, speaker Daylin Mitchell said Windvogel, on August 14, had called members on the other side of the house “murderers”.

“It is clear that the honourable Windvogel’s utterance was used with direct reference to the honourable members on the other side of the house,” he said.

“The remark made by the honourable Windvogel is unparliamentary and \[I] therefore request that the honourable Windvogel withdraw the remark unconditionally.”

Windvogel said: “I withdraw, speaker.”

She was again rapped over the knuckles for remarks made at the August 28 sitting.

“Honourable Windvogel attended the sitting remotely and interjected that [Winde], who was speaking at the time, must, and I quote, ‘stop lying’.

“I rule that the comment made by the honourable Windvogel is unparliamentary and I accordingly request that the honourable Windvogel withdraw her remarks unconditionally.”

Windvogel then said she withdrew the remark.

SACP and ANC MPL Benson Ngqentsu asked sports, arts and culture MEC Ricardo Mackenzie what was being done to root out racism in the Western Cape, especially in light of the recent alleged racist incidents in Knysna and George.

Knysna High School has launched an investigation after one of its pupils was captured allegedly using the K-word during a school event in August.

“What we see at Knysna High and York High is not an aberration,” Ngqentsu said.

“It is the deliberate reproduction of racist ideology in the minds of the young and imposed by the current liberal curriculum.”

He then turned personal and tore into the DA, saying: “In the eyes of the DA, you remain political ornaments and tokens wheeled out to soften the DA’s racist image and harvest Black votes while real power continues to sit comfortably in the hands of White privilege.

“The DA has no genuine space for Black leadership. We refuse to be kitchen girls and garden boys.”

DA members objected to being called ornaments, kitchen girls and garden boys.

MPL and finance MEC Deidre Baartman said it was also inappropriate for Ngqentsu to call others a kitchen girl.

“I want to know if the member referred to anyone in the house as a kitchen girl… it is inappropriate.”

Speaker Mitchell then asked Ngqentsu if he had referred to any member of the house as a kitchen girl or a garden boy.

Ngqentsu responded: “A political statement was made to advance a theoretical argument.”

Mitchell said: “No no no, honourable member, on a serious note, did you refer to anyone in the house as a kitchen girl or a garden boy.”

Ngqentsu again said: “A political statement was made to advance a theoretical argument.”

In another argument, ANC MPL Beauty Stoffels said hung municipalities remained one of the “most urgent governance crises facing our province”.

“In Theewaterskloof, Knysna, Beaufort West, Kannaland, Laingsburg and many other municipalities, MEC [Anton] Bredell’s fingerprints are visible in the destabilisation that has led to council meetings collapsing into walkouts, endless disputes and revolving-door leadership,” Stoffels said.

“This leaves residents with collapsing water infrastructure and uncollected refuse.”

Stoffels asked local government MEC Anton Bredell what interventions his department had put in place to stabilise governance in “these dysfunctional municipalities”.

Bredell said: “The dysfunction in bankrupt municipalities they created under their own thieving administrations.

“And then have the audacity to point fingers at the provincial government.

“In truth, they should not be blaming the Western Cape when this province picks up the pieces.

“They should be praising this DA-led government for picking up the pieces.”

GOOD MPL Brett Herron said: “Western Cape gangsters are hiding in plain sight, but because the fabric of communities is so threadbare, and there’s no relationship between local authorities and local communities, the value of local intelligence is lost.”

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