‘Zuma at war with country’

President to respond to debate

PRESIDENT Jacob Zuma will address a joint sitting of parliament today to reply to the rowdy and bad-tempered debate on his State of the Nation Address.

Yesterday, MPs met for a second day to debate Zuma’s speech, with some calling for the disbandment of parliament and for fresh elections to be held.

Cope MP Deidre Carter, whose party boycotted the first day of the debate on Tuesday, called for the disbandment of parliament.

She said Zuma was an incumbent “in war with his own country” and at war with the constitution and the rule of law.

“He is at war with members of his own cabinet. He is ultimately at war with us, the citizens of South Africa,” said Carter.

“It is time to hold fresh elections to elect honourable men and women to put its people first and not its party.”

The DA’s Solly Malatsi called President Zuma a “false prophet” who preached the “gospel of deception” when he took to the podium last week.

“Mr Zuma is the modern-day false prophet Hananiah who we were warned about in the Book of Jeremiah,” Malatsi said.

“Every year he comes to this podium with a new scripture of false promises that he never fulfils.

“And just like the false prophet Hananiah who lied to the people of Juda that he was sent by the Lord to conquer King Nebuchadnezzar, he is the master of deceit,” he said.

Malatsi said many South Africans are squatters on the land of their ancestors and don’t have title deeds to affirm ownership of the properties they live in.

Freedom Front Plus MP Pieter Groenewald said it was Zuma who has lost the “moral compass ”–a reference to Minister in the Presidency’s Jeff Radebe’s speech on Tuesday.

Groenewald also said Zuma blamed whites for his government’s shortcomings.

“You are the person who is supposed to set an example. You are the root cause of what we are having in South Africa.

“Every time there’s something wrong you blame the white people. You must say where you stand with the white people of South Africa,” said Groenewald.

He said 11 people were murdered this month alone on farms.

“I say it’s a shame,” said Groenewald.

Small business Minister Lindiwe Zulu came to Zuma’s defence.

Zulu told DA MPs that “there is a limit to how far you can push us” to loud jeers from the opposition which accused the minister of threatening them.

Zulu said DA MP Natasha Mazzone must go “dress properly” before attending the joint sitting.