Speaker of National Assembly Must Rule on Gun-Toting Members

GOOD Statement by Brett Herron, Unite for Change Leadership Council Members & GOOD member of the Western Cape Provincial Parliament:

The DA-controlled Western Cape Legislature’s Conduct Committee has predictably followed a dubious quasi-legal process to shut down the questions I raised about a DA MP’s decision to pack a gun for party work in townships.

The process was manufactured to stifle political debate on a subject that was equally hotly debated in the media.

The committee’s findings will be strenuously opposed. In addition, I will address a letter to the Speaker of the National Assembly for guidance in respect of elected public representatives carrying guns while conducting oversight or party work.

Illegal quasi-legal process

According to the Conduct Committee, it has conducted a trial of some sort, without inviting me to attend, and found me guilty of something on the basis of an anonymous complaint.

It’s impossible to discern the precise nature of my “crime” because the only paperwork the committee placed on record – the so-called complaint – was so heavily redacted it made no sense. Even the complainant’s name was blacked out.

After receiving the complaint, I submitted extensive reasons objecting to their jurisdiction on the subject matter and informed the Conduct Committee of the basis of my intended defence.

The next thing I was informed was that I’d been found guilty at a secret hearing, without being provided a right to be heard. Bizarrely, after not being invited to my trial, I was offered the opportunity to give input on mitigation of a sanction already decided.

I have respectfully informed the Chairperson of the Conduct Committee that the matter falls outside its jurisdiction, which relates to the performance of their duties by Members of the Legislature. I have also drawn the committee’s attention to the Constitutional protection of free and fair, and indeed robust political activity.

The Committee has failed to act in a manner that is procedurally fair, consistent, or aligned with the principle of audi alteram partem.

The findings by the Committee in these circumstances will be strenuously opposed, beginning with an appeal to the Appeals Committee, which is chaired by the Speaker of the Legislature.

The Facts

In August 2025, DA Member of Parliament Ian Cameron travelled with two colleagues to a police facility in Philippi to conduct oversight. Philippi is among the most crime-saturated areas in the country. Rather than ask the Speaker of the National Assembly for a security detail, Cameron – who evidently loves guns – elected to take responsibility for the group’s security himself.

The trio duly came under attack, and Cameron used his gun to get them out of what sounds like serious trouble. He was hailed by his right-wing fans on social media as a latter-day folk hero.

I responded to these events with a statement, issued in my capacity as the Secretary-General of the GOOD party, making the point that the incident contradicted the DA’s claim to be running Cape Town exceptionally well – Philippi clearly isn’t run at all well. Pointing out that Cameron had been hailed in conservative circles for shooting a Black youth, which reinforced old divisions, the statement termed the event reminiscent “of the apartheid propaganda films depicting ‘civilised Whites’ with guns overpowering ‘Black savagery’.”

Cameron’s “love of shooting”

Cameron self-identifies as gun-loving and right-wing.

He publicly confirmed his love of guns as recently as 14 October 2025, when challenged by a colleague on Parliament’s Ad Hoc Committee into the criminal justice system on the appropriateness of his wearing the lanyard of a firearm company. He also had the lanyards of other firearm companies, he said. “I like shooting… sport shooting especially,” he said.

His political leanings are clear from the posts all over social media of him, in blackface, evidently representing Afriforum, protesting against alleged White victimisation in the education system.

The Conduct Committee published (ATC’d) their report on 3 March 2026.

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