EFF’s motion to remove Nqakula fails
JOHANNESBURG - The EFF’s motion of no confidence in National Assembly speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula was defeated on Wednesday.
A majority of the assembly’s members (234) voted against the motion with only 42 supporting it and 73 abstentions.
EFF leader Julius Malema called for Mapisa-Nqakula’s removal for allowing armed members of the security services to enter a joint sitting of Parliament on February 9 when President Cyril Ramaphosa was delivering his State of the Nation Address (SONA).
Wall
Armed police rushed to the stage at the Cape Town City Hall, where some formed a wall around Ramaphosa while others pushed, charging EFF MPs from the stage as they were approaching a seated Ramaphosa.
On Wednesday, Malema accused
Mapisa-Nqakula of being an ‘unrepentant delinquent’ who abuses her power and violates the rules of the National Assembly and the Constitution.
“She allowed the police to invade Parliament and made it worse by calling on the security forces of South Africa to enter the chamber to intimidate peaceful Members of Parliament,” he said.
Answers
Malema claimed that in June last year when EFF MPs demanded answers from Ramaphosa about cash stolen from his farm, Mapisa-Nqakula degenerated and instructed the Parliament protection officers to assault EFF MPs, including women.
“Women MPs were also sexually assaulted because when they were being violently removed, beaten and pushed, their private parts were touched by men.
“We told the Speaker in the same sitting that this is happening, but she ignored us because her sole mandate is to protect Ramaphosa.
“Whenever Ramaphosa is being held accountable she chooses violence. She chooses to abuse her powers, violate the Constitution and the rules of the National Assembly,” said Malema.
Violate
“She is happy when we leave these chambers in the hands of men who are unashamed to violate women Members of Parliament, touch our private parts and harass us such that we end up in hospital seeking medical treatment.”
EFF MPs rising on points of order held up that budget debate by over an hour before Mapisa-Nqakula instructed Parliament bouncers to eject them and muted their microphones.
Two months later Parliament announced that an independent investigation found no evidence of gender-based violence or sexual assault of female EFF MPs during their ejection.
Motivating for the Speaker’s removal, Malema accused Mapisa-Nqakula of protecting Ramaphosa including her decision to reject the ATM and other parties’ request for a secret ballot on the vote to establish the Section 89 committee into the Phala Phala saga despite MPs being threatened with removal by the ANC should they decide to vote with their conscience.
He accused her of being ‘a tool’ and a puppet of the president saying ‘‘like her handler, she must be removed, and she must be removed now,” said Malema.
Only one political party, the ATM, agreed with the EFF.
The ANC’s deputy chief whip Doris Dlakude described EFF MPs’ storming of the stage on SONA night as treasonous.
She said the party’s mission was to weaken Parliament democracy and its processes by defying its rules and undermining its presiding officers.