Parliament - Opposition parties have taken a tough stance by boycotting President Jacob Zuma’s reply to the debate on the Presidency’s budget vote on Thursday.
DA leader Mmusi Maimane said on Thursday that after he held consultations with other opposition parties they decided to boycott Zuma’s reply.
The opposition parties have clamoured for Zuma to go.
This followed the Constitutional Court judgment that Zuma violated the Constitution in the Nkandla saga.
The North Gauteng High Court also reopened the way for the National Prosecuting Authority to recharge Zuma with multiple corruption charges.
In its ruling the court found that then acting NPA head Mokotedi Mpshe had acted irrationally when he dropped the corruption charges against Zuma seven years ago. This was a few days before Zuma was elected president.
The boycott of Zuma’s reply to the debate on Thursday follows Wednesday’s tumultuous proceedings in the National Assembly where the EFF was forcibly ejected by plainclothes members of Parliament’s protection services after they refused to leave on the instruction of Speaker Baleka Mbete.
Parliament took a decision to suspend the EFF MPs for five working days for disrupting the proceedings.
The institution will also look at taking disciplinary action against the 15 EFF MPs involved in the disruption of Parliament.
Political Bureau