Parliament - The EFF could face being isolated in Parliament’s opposition benches after its “Pay back the money” chant on Thursday led to the collapse of the sitting in the House.
Speaker Baleka Mbete decided to adjourn President Jacob Zuma’s question time rather than call in the police.
Several other opposition parties reacted angrily at yet another chaotic turn of events in the National Assembly, which saw Zuma on the podium twice, but without ever answering any of the six questions posed to him.
DA chief whip John Steenhuisen blamed the party for “helping Jacob Zuma walk out the back door without answering any questions” and IFP chief whip Narend Singh said the EFF should be brought before the ethics committee.
Freedom Front Plus chief whip Corne Mulder said “you cannot allow a 6 percent party to disrupt Parliament”.
However, EFF leader Julius Malema remained defiant. “We are not worried about their anger. We are not here to please anyone. We don’t make friends.
We work,” he told Independent Newspapers. “There is nothing they will get from Jacob Zuma. (Yesterday) would not have made any difference.
“We will do this until he pays back the money,” said Malema. “Zuma and Nkandla is an epitome of corruption… It must be fought.
“What Zuma did (last time in the House) was effectively showing the middle finger,” added Malema.
This was a reference to Zuma’s putting on a fake posh English accent, “Nkhaandlaa”, during his response to the Presidency budget vote debate in May.
This happened just hours after Cabinet had discussed Police Minister Nkosinathi Nhleko’s report absolving the president from any repayments, on the eve of the report’s official release.
After the House was adjourned on Thursday, Parliament’s presiding officers held a media briefing where they insisted rules had to be obeyed and dismissed the often raised accusations of Mbete’s bias.
However, there was less clarity from the presiding officers – Mbete, her deputy Lechesa Tsenoli and National Council of Provinces chairwoman Thandi Modise – on what Parliament would do next.
Heads would be put together “to find the best way forward” to addressing the disruption. Consideration would be given to strengthening the office of the sergeant-at-arms, or the enforcer of discipline and protocol.
The next few days are expected to be tense in Marks Building where most of the opposition parties are based.
While many are furious with the EFF for their tactics, none are rejecting their critique of the behaviour of Zuma and his administration over Nkandla. Or as Mulder put it: “Nobody disagrees with them (EFF) on the Nkandla matter.
“We are going to fight this, all the way to the Constitutional Court if necessary.”
However, it appeared at least the UDM and Cope were sympathetic.
And this could raise questions over an opposition united front, a fragile coming together on key issues forged over several years.
The ANC may want to exploit this.
On Thursday night, MPs said it would work with “those, who share our common interest of protecting and defending this institution against rampant acts of hooliganism”.
The party has drawn a line in the sand in dismissing the EFF which had adopted an orchestrated plan to disrupt the sitting.
UDM MP Mncedisi Filtane said EFF MPs were entitled to pursue their strategy, particularly after the president mocked everyone from the podium last month.
“It is all they (EFF) can do given the ANC has the majority. It’s a free for all in the House. One uses whatever strength one has,” he said, adding in reference to the Nkandla saga that “a political problem cannot be solved through administrative processes”.
Cope leader Mosiuoa Lekota said Zuma was reaping what he had sown: “The ruling party has stabbed and kicked mutuality to death and has actively striven to undermine constitutional compliance.”
The House collapsed when the EFF pushed the Nkandla saga even after other opposition MPs in the strongest words told Zuma that ultimately he would have to answer on Nkandla but not on Thursday.
Political Bureau