Cape Town - The EFF claims police plan to “manhandle” its MPs during President Jacob Zuma's State of the Nation Address (SONA) in Parliament on Thursday evening.
“[We] have it on good authority that Parliament and the ANC police have planned to manhandle and arrest EFF MPs for things they will say inside Parliament during the State of the Nation Address,” spokesman Mbuyiseni Ndlozi said in a statement.
According to the Economic Freedom Fighters, Speaker of Parliament Baleka Mbete will ask MPs to sit down three times. She will then instruct the Serjeant-at-Arms to come into the House, Ndlozi said.
The Serjeant-at-Arms would ask “the member to leave and will bow three times before police are called in to remove the member”, he said.
“The police will then remove the member and take them into a dungeon which will lead to Tuynhuys, and during that process we will not know what will happen to the member.
“Each gate and entrance of Parliament will have 20 police officers, who will manhandle the MPs,” Ndlozi said,
The EFF has vowed to disrupt Zuma's address unless a special sitting of the National Assembly is scheduled beforehand for him to answer questions about the upgrades to his private homestead at Nkandla, in KwaZulu-Natal.
Ndlozi said the EFF would not be intimidated and would go ahead with its plans to question Zuma during his address.
“The EFF will ask questions in Parliament because Zuma has been avoiding accountability in Parliament.
“The demand and clarion call is simple. Zuma must pay back the money and be held accountable by the institutions of democracy,” he said.
Ndlozi later reassured the media outside Parliament that his party was resolute that it would ask Zuma a question.
"Rest assured, the question will be asked."
Ndlozi said that he expected the Andile Mngxitama faction to take their seats in the National Assembly on Thursday evening.
Earlier Mngxitama had to be escorted out of a hotel in Cape Town where he was to have held a press conference.
Twitter was abuzz with posts about fights breaking out at the Cape Sun Hotel between EFF members and supporters of Mngxitama.
"I think there will be no empty seats. I hope he will be there, he is paid to be there," Ndlozi said.
Referring to infighting in the EFF, Ndlozi rejected notions that it would undermine the party.
"The EFF is here to stay. We are the government in waiting."
Sapa