Cape Town - The EFF says it will haul President Jacob Zuma before court if he refuses to pay back the money on the upgrades at his Nkandla residence.
Addressing the media on Thursday at a joint opposition party briefing on the use of police in Parliament, EFF leader Julius Malema said his party would apply to the courts to enforce the “remedial actions” of the public protector.
“From the look of things, they are actually deliberately distorting the ruling of the court that the public protector’s remedial actions are just recommendations. The president said that himself. So we are awaiting that report, and if it comes and says President Zuma must not pay, we will go to court,” said Malema.
The report by Police Minister Nathi Nhleko is expected at the end of the month.
DA parliamentary leader Mmusi Maimane said there was a court action that argued the enforceability of the public protector’s remedial action.
“When the president says it’s recommendations, I think that’s misleading, quite frankly. It’s not,” Maimane said.
“The Constitution empowers the public protector to say she can make remedial actions, and part of the remedial actions she put forward was to say the president must pay back a portion of the money and that the president unduly benefited. The first point of departure will and always will be the enforceability of the public protectors remedial actions,” said Maimane.
Opposition parties on Thursday also united in their call against the use of police in the parliamentary chambers, with Malema saying Parliament had become more dangerous than a nightclub.
The briefing followed the DA’s high court challenge on the issue this week.
The DA made submissions to have section 11 of the Powers, Privileges and Immunities of Parliament and Provincial Legislatures Act declared unconstitutional or that the section be declared not applicable to MPs.
The application arose from the forceful removal of the entire EFF caucus during the State of the Nation Address.
“The issue is about them entering the chamber,” Maimane said. “What determines the threat? One day you stand up on a point of order and the Speaker feels that that is a threat. Is she then entitled to deploy police? These questions remain valid despite the verdict of the court.”
Malema said there was a big problem when a Speaker deployed “unidentifiable individuals masquerading as security forces” to remove MPs.
“(She) is effectively instructing them to assault us because there is no policeman who has the right to manhandle you, unless that person has identified himself either through uniform or identity card as an officer of the law.”
Malema said it was safer in a nightclub than in Parliament “because in nightclubs we are secured by the owners and they always intervene when there’s a possibility of a fight”.
IFP MP Sibongile Nkomo said the party was concerned about what was happening in Parliament, while Freedom Front Plus leader Pieter Mulder said “this is not the ANC’s Parliament – it’s the people’s Parliament”.
Political Bureau