PART 5 31. No person shall —| (a) | wilfully fail or refuse to obey any rule or order of Parliament or a committee, or any order of the Speaker duly made under the Standing Orders or this Act; | | (b) | fail without just cause to comply with any summons issued in terms of section 13 or 25; | | (c) | assault, hinder, obstruct or insult the Speaker or any Member coming to or going from Parliament on account of his conduct in Parliament or of anything done or said by him in Parliament; | | (d) | endeavour to compel any Member by force, insult or menace to declare himself in favour of or against any proposition or matter pending or expected to be brought before Parliament; | | (e) | assault, threaten, insult, interfere with, obstruct or resist any officer of Parliament while in the execution of his duty; | | (f) | threaten or send a threatening letter to the Speaker or a Member or challenge him to a fight on account of his conduct in Parliament or of anything done or said by him in Parliament; | | (g) | publish any statement, whether in writing or otherwise, which falsely or scandalously defames, or which reflects on the character of, the Speaker or any Member touching on his conduct in Parliament or anything done or said by him in Parliament; | | (h) | publish wilfully any false or perverted report or any writing containing a gross or scandalous misrepresentation of any debate or proceedings of Parliament, or of any speech of a Member in Parliament; | | (i) | publish any report of any debate or proceedings of a committee or of any evidence given or any document presented to the committee or extracts from such documents, before the committee has presented its report to Parliament; | | (j) | publish any report or statement purporting to be a report of any debate or proceedings of Parliament in any case where the proceedings have been conducted after exclusion by order of Parliament of strangers or officers of Parliament or where such publication has been expressly prohibited by order of Parliament; | | (k) | publish any statement, whether in writing or otherwise, which falsely or scandalously defames the proceedings or the character of Parliament; | | (l) | create or join in any disturbance in Parliament or in the precincts or vicinity thereof while Parliament or a committee is sitting; | | (m) | refuse to be examined before or to answer any lawful or relevant question put by or to produce any paper, book, record or document in his possession or under his control required by Parliament or any committee unless the refusal is based on privilege or is excused; | | (n) | prevaricate or otherwise misconduct himself as a witness before Parliament or a committee; | | (o) | present to Parliament or a committee any false, untrue, fabricated or falsified document with intent to deceive Parliament or a committee; | | (p) | tamper with, deter, threaten, beguile or in any way unduly influence any witness in regard to his evidence before Parliament or a committee; | | (q) | whether or not he has been sworn or has made an affirmation, wilfully make a false answer to any question material to the subject of inquiry put during examination before Parliament or a committee; or | | (r) | when Parliament is sitting and meeting under continuity arrangements made under Article 64A of the Constitution, knowingly or rashly do any act that interferes or is likely to interfere with the means by which Members located at different places contemporaneously communicate with one another. [4/2021] |
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| Member to disclose pecuniary interest |
| 32. A Member shall not in or before Parliament or any committee take part in the discussion of any matter in which he has a direct personal pecuniary interest without disclosing the extent of that interest and shall not in any circumstances vote upon any such matter. |
| Evidence of proceedings in Parliament or committee not to be given without leave |
33.—(1) No Member or officer of Parliament and no person employed to take minutes of evidence before Parliament or any committee shall give evidence elsewhere in respect of the contents of such evidence or of the contents of any manuscript or document laid before Parliament or any committee or in respect of any proceedings or examination had before Parliament or before any committee without the special leave of Parliament first had and obtained.| (2) Such special leave may be given after a dissolution or during a recess or adjournment by the Speaker or, in his absence or other incapacity, by the Clerk. |
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| Printing false copy of laws, etc. |
| 34. Any person who prints or causes to be printed a copy of any law or Act now or hereafter in force, or a copy of any report, paper or journal of Parliament or of any committee as purporting to have been printed by the Government Printer, or by or under the authority of Parliament or any committee, or of the Speaker, which is not so printed, or tenders in evidence any such copy as purporting to be so printed, knowing that the same was not so printed, shall be guilty of an offence. |
| Certain fees, gifts, etc., prohibited |
35.—(1) No person shall offer any fee, gift, compensation, profit, reward, loan, consideration or other advantage whatsoever —| (a) | to the Speaker or any Member or officer of Parliament either directly or through any person for or in respect of the promotion of or opposition to any bill, resolution, matter or thing submitted or intended to be submitted for the consideration of Parliament or any committee or otherwise with a view to influencing him in his capacity as Speaker, Member or officer of Parliament; or | | (b) | to any person in order to obtain his services for the purpose of influencing the Speaker or any Member or officer of Parliament in respect of or in regard to anything connected with any matter mentioned in paragraph (a). |
| (2) Any person mentioned in subsection (1)(a) or (b) who demands or accepts any such fee, gift, compensation, profit, reward, loan, consideration or other advantage shall be guilty of an offence. |
| (3) On the conviction of any person for an offence under this section the court shall in addition to any penalty which it may impose in terms of section 36(1)(a) order that the value of the fee, gift, compensation, profit, reward, loan, consideration or other advantage, which is the subject of the offence, shall be paid by the recipient into the Consolidated Fund. |
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| General offences and penalties |
36.—(1) Any person who contravenes any of the provisions of this Act shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on conviction —| (a) | for a contravention of section 35, to a fine not exceeding $10,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 7 years or to both; | | (b) | for a contravention of section 31(d), (o), (p) or (q), to a fine not exceeding $7,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 3 years or to both; and | | (c) | for a contravention of any other provision of this Act, to a fine not exceeding $5,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 2 years or to both. |
| (2) Any person who attempts to contravene any provision of this Act or abets the contravention of any such provision shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on conviction to the penalty to which he would have been liable for a contravention of the provision itself. |
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| Restriction on prosecution |
| 37. No prosecution shall be instituted in any court for an offence under this Act unless the matter giving rise to that prosecution has been referred to the Public Prosecutor under section 21(1). [15/2010] |
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