Cape Town - Democratic Alliance parliamentary leader Mmusi Maimane on Thursday distanced the official opposition from a threat by the Economic Freedom Fighters to corner President Jacob Zuma on the Nkandla controversy at the opening of Parliament next month.
“The EFF's planned disruption of the State of the Nation may be good for high drama, but it does not help to restore Parliament's role as the apex of our democracy's mechanisms of accountability,” Maimane told a press conference on the steps of the National Assembly in Cape Town.
“Destroying the institution of Parliament in no way strengthens its role.”
Maimane denied that this marked a U-turn for the DA benches who last year flouted the legislature's rules when, along with the EFF, it heckled Speaker Baleka Mbete, chanting “you must go”.
The EFF has been demanding loudly in Parliament that Zuma explain when he is going to pay back money relating to state-funded upgrades at his private residence Nkandla in KwaZulu-Natal.
Sapa