New EFF MP fixed to ‘moer’ Zuma

New EFF MP Phillip Mhlongo said he would not be apologetic when he held Zuma accountable. Picture: Thokozani Ndlovu

New EFF MP Phillip Mhlongo said he would not be apologetic when he held Zuma accountable. Picture: Thokozani Ndlovu

Published Jul 27, 2015

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Durban - New EFF MP Phillip Mhlongo said on Sunday that he would join his party colleagues in Parliament to hold President Jacob Zuma and his executive to account.

“I’m part of the collective of the EFF which took a firm position to tell nothing but the truth. We are not to massage white monopoly capital or those who were liberators,” Mhlongo said.

The outspoken Mhlongo on Friday took up the position previously occupied by Lucky Twala, who resigned as an MP.

He joins Parliament at a time when it is tightening its rules in response to the EFF’s defiance of the presiding officers.

Mhlongo said he was unfazed by what he described as the “ANC trying to intimidate and manhandle us because we don’t obey the rules”.

“It is our duty to make the executive accountable,” he said. “We are to even use courts if the ANC needs to be pushed,” Mhlongo said, in reference to reports that police officers would form part of the parliamentary protection unit to enforce the new rules by forcefully ejecting disruptive MPs from the House.

Mhlongo said he would not be apologetic when he held Zuma accountable.

“He took the oath just like me. We must moer him.”

He recalled his surprise when commander-in-chief Julius Malema and his deputy Floyd Shivambu informed him that he needed to prepare for parliamentary activity.

“In line with that as a member of the organisation, we follow the order of the CIC. There was an element of shock,” Mhlongo said.

He also said he was ready for the task ahead of him.

“Under this administration I listen to the cries and hopelessness, which make me understand what needs to be done. Their issues will see the light of day,” Mhlongo said in reference to issues ordinary people raised with him.

Mhlongo has, until his swearing-in as an MP, been the EFF KwaZuleu-Natal organiser and part of the provincial leadership.

An ardent Zuma critic, Mhlongo was among leaders who left the ANC to form the Congress of the People.

However, his backing of Mbazima Shilowa cost him and he lost out a paying job as a provincial secretary during the party fights.

Mhlongo and other former Cope employees, it is claimed, did not receive their pensions. They could not pay their debts, and banks threatened to repossess their houses and cars.

On overcoming his financial hardships, Mhlongo likened himself to the biblical Abraham, who was ordered to sacrifice his son, Isaac, instead of a lamb, in a test of his faith.

“I have a strong wife and daughter who have been praying for me through the turbulent times,” he said. “Finally, God came up with a solution: Julius Malema intervened in my life,” he said.

Daily News

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