Don’t take us for granted, EFF warns

Coalition parties at odds after motion to dissolve parliament defeated

THE EFF has warned the DA to stop taking its partnership in three key metro municipalities for granted. EFF deputy president and chief whip Floyd Shivambu sounded the warning in the National Assembly yesterday during a debate on the DA’s motion calling for the dissolution of parliament and for early elections to be held.

The DA lost the debate after 229 MPs voted against the motion, with 83 supporting it and seven abstaining.

There have been tensions between the DA and the EFF following the removal of Nelson Mandela Bay deputy mayor Mongameli Bobani, and in other key metro municipalities such as Tshwane and Johannesburg in Gauteng.

The DA governs the three municipalities with the support of the EFF and other smaller parties such as the UDM.

EFF leader Julius Malema rejected an invitation from the DA at the weekend for the parties to iron out their differences.

DA chief whip John Steenhuisen, who sponsored the motion for the dissolution of parliament, said parliament should be dissolved because it had failed to hold Zuma accountable.

“A president who has sold his country to foreigners who stripped the country not only of its money and resources, but [also] snatched away opportunity from the hands of the poor and most vulnerable in our society,” he said.

“The president of the republic has sacrificed the future of our nation’s children on the altar of the Guptas only to selfishly secure his own future. Madness.”

However, Shivambu said the EFF rejected the motion and the DA should stop acting like a super political party.

He said the DA tabled the motion out of the blue, without consulting the other opposition parties and had made tactical blunders in the run-up to last month’s motion of no confidence in President Jacob Zuma.

“The DA must not take advantage of the mercy that we’ve given them, they must not take the vote that we have given them in municipalities for granted,” he said.

“They must not take the fact that we allow them to lead critical motions for granted.

“Don’t undermine us, don’t undermine the other political parties.

“With which power do you dissolve parliament, who gave you the mandate to dissolve parliament?

“So the DA is cautioned officially, don’t engage in self-destructive activities and programmes.

“You stand a reasonable chance when they [ANC] are self-destructing to be part of national government in 2019 onwards.

“But if you continue on this path of self-destruction, of wanting to exist as if you are some super political party, you are going to offend people who otherwise were going to give you the responsibility to lead society.”

Several of the parties argued that the Independent Electoral Commission was not ready to hold early elections.

The ANC’s Richard Mdakane said the DA was attempting to usurp his party’s majority through technicalities.

“We must never [allow] baseless motions by political parties that use all sorts of tricks to undermine the will of the majority – this is what it’s about,” he said.

“Enjoy your 22%, don’t undermine our majority,” he said.

The president has sacrificed the future of our nation’s children