Johannesburg - The State of the Nation Address may be uninterrupted if Pastor Ray McCauley gets his way.
Since the EFF threatened to interrupt President Jacob Zuma’s speech - to call for him to pay back the money used for security upgrades at his Nkandla home - McCauley has been trying to broker peace between the two parties.
He has spoken to EFF leader Julius Malema and to Zuma in his mediation in the run-up to the address and the official opening of Parliament.
Speaking to The Star on Tuesday morning, McCauley said he was asked by a “leading politician from Parliament whose name he cannot mention” as well as the chief rabbi, the archbishop of Cape Town, and other religious leaders to intervene in this matter so that decorum returned to Parliament.
Since December, McCauley has been going back and forth, speaking to the EFF and the ANC, with a view of getting the parties to agree on what should happen on Thursday.
McCauley said as much as the opposition parties had the right to ask questions and get answers from Zuma, Thursday was not the appropriate time to do so.
The agreement was that Zuma answer all the questions in March.
“He must speak without being interrupted and we need to get to some peace accord. All of the opposition parties besides the EFF were willing to let the State of the Nation Address go uninterrupted.
“We have been speaking to President Zuma, the Speaker of Parliament (Baleka Mbete) and the Deputy President (Cyril Ramaphosa).
“I also spoke to Prince (Mangosuthu) Buthelezi, because we need everyone to get behind this,” he said.
While addressing Mohlakeng residents on Sunday, Malema reiterated that they would ask Zuma to pay back the money. However, McCauley said he met with Malema that day to discuss the issue. While Malema and other EFF leaders were agreeable to what was suggested, they wanted certain conditions to be agreed before Thursday, McCauley said.
“They want certain charges to be dropped and to be allowed to speak without being told to sit down. We just want them to allow the State of the Nation address to go ahead. The matter is very sensitive at the moment but we are right at the brink of getting somewhere. We want the right behaviour on the opening day,” McCauley said.
EFF leader Julius Malema on Tuesday confirmed that the party had been meeting with Rhema Bible Church pastor Ray McCauley, who had been trying to broker a deal to avert chaos in Parliament.
He said the clandestine meetings had been going on since December.
“He (McCauley) met the leadership of the EFF. We have no problem with (meeting) religious leaders or anybody who wants to restore sanity in that House (National Assembly),” Malema said on Tuesday morning.
He said the EFF had told McCauley that the party wanted the restoration of the peace pact that was brokered by Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa between the ANC and opposition parties in November last year.
He said any hope of a truce between the ANC and his party had faded because of the ANC’s hardline, uncompromising stance.
Malema said McCauley had met him and other EFF leaders this past Sunday to give them the “last report” about the ANC’s response.
“He said the ANC said ‘no’. He said the deal is off.”
Presidential spokesman Mac Maharaj had not responded at the time of publication.
The Star