Sparks flew at the parliamentary impeachment committee on Wednesday when an exchange between EFF leader Julius Malema and ANC MP Cameron Dugmore escalated into name-calling and accusations of racism.
Malema accused Dugmore of being a racist and white supremacist after Dugmore called him out for referring to the Minister in the Presidency, Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, by her first name. Dugmore argued that this was unparliamentary.
Dugmore, addressing committee chairperson Makashule Gana, said:
“I know you are chairing the meeting, and I don’t want to do this, but when members refer to others by their first names, you do nothing about it ... you can understand why I’m raising this point,” Dugmore said.
He said he did not think this was respectful, nor was it in line with convention.
Malema interjected, saying:
I have got no respect for white supremacists; you must know that, I’ve got no respect for people who think they are superior to others. You can do that to your tokens in your party, but you won’t do that with me.
Gana ordered Malema to withdraw, but Malema continued and made reference to Dugmore’s skin colour.
“This guy is a racist. You’re not realising it, he’s a bloody racist this guy. He thinks he is superior,” he said.
“You can look at his skin burnt from the sun, racist of note; you can’t subject me to this clown.”
Dugmore responded by saying Malema’s reference to the colour of his skin was not the first.
“The first time, you did nothing about it as a chair,” he said to Gana.
“I don’t have to defend myself for being in the struggle while honourable Malema was still a child, and I’m not going to do that,” he said.
Dugmore was recruited into the ANC underground in 1986 and then joined the party in 1991.
Malema subsequently withdrew.
He was also asked to withdraw other utterances made towards Dugmore.
But Malema said he would not, as Dugmore had referred to him as a boy.
He had said:
What if his father was killing people when he was a boy? What if I make that allegation that his father was killing people when he was a boy?
Malema turned around and asked Dugmore to withdraw.
Gana was not hearing any of it.
But Malema doubled down.
“I withdraw ‘racist’, but I maintain that he is a white supremacist and there is nothing unparliamentary about that,” he said.
Dugmore has a long history in the struggle against apartheid. His activism dates back to his teenage years, when he helped remove beach apartheid signs at Herolds Bay and Victoria Bay, influenced by his mother, who was a Black Sash member, according to SA History online.
His activism continued while he was a student at the University of Cape Town in the ’80s in the National Union of SA Students and the United Democratic Front (UDF).
He joined the ANC in 1990 and has served as an MPL, and is now an MP.