Parliament – Insisting that President Jacob Zuma is no longer a legitimate leader, the Economic Freedom Fighters on Tuesday followed Cope out of the National Assembly, saying it would sit out his quarterly question session in a parliamentary corridor.
“We will wait outside, when the criminal finishes speaking we will come back,” EFF leader Julius Malema said. “We are just going to the loo because we are avoiding the criminal.”
This came after the EFF had spent half an hour badgering Speaker Baleka Mbete to take action against Zuma because of the finding by the Constitutional Court that he flouted the Constitution when he failed to heed the Public Protector’s orders to repay a portion of the state funding spent on his Nkandla home.
On Monday, Zuma confirmed that he had paid back R7.8 million, in line with the court ruling that followed separate applications by the EFF and Democratic Alliance.
But Malema told MPs that the EFF had sent a letter to Mbete on the eve of the sitting in which it demanded steps be taken against Zuma.
“Because of the Constitutional Court ruling it cannot be business as usual… he is honourable no more,” he said, before accusing Zuma of leading South Africa to collapse.
“You must tell Zuma to leave.”
Mbete replied that she had received the letter at midnight, and then quoted from her response, in which she said invoking sections 89 and 102 of the Constitution set out the only mechanisms for removing a sitting president.
“I wish to refer you to my comprehensive response dated 3 May, 2016,” she said.
“In essence sections 89 and 102 of the Constitution which deal with the provisions whereby the president can be removed and therefore I really cannot deal with the request of the EFF.”
When EFF deputy leader Floyd Shivambu persisted, Mbete ordered him out of the house, prompting Malema to announce all members of his party were leaving.
ANC chief whip Jackson Mthembu cited the same sections and objected that Zuma should be subjected to “abuse”. It was against the rules to call him a thief and a criminal, he said.
“The president is here not to be ridiculed, he is here to answer questions to this House.”
In response, DA chief whip John Steenhuisen said since a thief was defined as someone who stole, the slur was entirely appropriate.
The question session then kicked off with questions on the economy.
African News Agency