Parliament – Economic Freedom Fighters leader Julius Malema on Tuesday vowed to fight back with “any weapon we come across” after he and fellow MPs were pushed out of the National Assembly building by members of the parliamentary protection guard after another attempt to prevent President Jacob Zuma from proceeding with his quarterly question-and-answer session.
Members of the public order policing unit, who were called in following the violent clashes, looked on as Malema addressed members of the media.
PICS: EFF clashes turn parly on its head
“Zuma will never find peace in this Parliament,” he said.
“We cannot be led by a man who failed to defend, uphold and protect our Constitution.”
Malama defended his MPs for hitting back when dragged out of the chamber, saying: “This bouncers must know that if they give violence, we will respond with violence.”
After Speaker Baleka Mbete ordered them from the chamber, the EFF MPs hurled water bottles at protection officers who were charged with physically removing them.
Malema said their vow to “fight back” would not stop with water bottles.
“Any weapon we come across we will fight with it. We are going to fight back with everything we have,” he said.
Malema said his party would continue their campaign to prevent Zuma from speaking in the House, insisting that since the Constitutional Court found that he had violated the country’s highest law by not abiding by the directives of Public Protector Thuli Madonseal to pay back public money used for improvements to his Nkandla home, the EFF did not see him as a legitimate president.
“Zuma is not president. The day he violated the Constitution is the day he kissed the office of the presidency goodbye,” the firebrand leader of South Africa’s third largest party said.
As Malema and his colleagues left the parliamentary precinct to serve out a five-day automatic suspension, some of the party’s supporters, who were earlier involved in the running battles between the MPs and the parliamentary security officials sang and danced outside the gates to the legislature.
Zuma’s question session inside the chamber continued, while a shattered glass door at one of the entrances to the building bore testimony to the chaos and violence.
African News Agency