Parliament – Democratic Alliance leader Mmusi Maimane on Tuesday told the National Assembly that President Jacob Zuma had no honour and deserved no respect, and called on him to resign.
Speaking in the debate on Zuma’s state of the nation address last week, the official opposition leader said the speech had proven that the president lived in a parallel universe, oblivious to the plight of ordinary South Africans.
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Maimane said while razor wire kept protesters away from the legislature last Thursday, “the president was tucked safely away somewhere on Planet Zuma”.
“Planet Zuma is a place in a parallel universe, far, far away from the lives of ordinary South Africans… a place where a swimming pool can be called fire pool,” he added.
“We learnt more about Planet Zuma than the country we live in because, you see, on Planet Zuma there is no jobs crisis.”
Judging by the president’s narrative, there were also no problems in the education system or with the country’s cash-strapped parastatals, Maimane added.
Contrasting the DA with the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) who disrupted the speech before being ordered out of the chamber last week, Maimane said the DA had stayed and heard Zuma out because it respects Parliament.
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“We stayed to the bitter end because this is what the people of South Africa expect of us. They expect us to be here in this Parliament, making it work.
“But we did not come out of respect for Jacob Zuma, we cannot respect a man who puts himself and his rich friends first, while the people of this country suffers. Jacob Zuma is not an honourable man because if he was, he would do the honourable thing and resign.”
African News Agency
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