EFF pushes House rules to limit
THE EFF pushed new parliamentary rules on the ejection of MPs to the limit yesterday, narrowly avoiding being evicted by the strengthened Parliamentary Protection Services.
CAPE TOWN — The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) pushed the new parliamentary rules on the ejection of MPs to the limit yesterday and narrowly avoided being evicted by the strengthened Parliamentary Protection Services.
Presidential question time got off to a rocky start when the EFF charged that its question on when President Jacob Zuma would pay back money spent on his Nkandla home was last on the question paper so that it would not be answered. This was defused by National Assembly speaker Baleka Mbete, who said Mr Zuma always answered all the questions.
After a relatively peaceful passage through five questions, chaos reigned when Mr Zuma began answering the EFF question on repaying the money. MPs of the EFF persistently screamed out at Ms Mbete, frequently drowning out some of Mr Zuma’s replies.
The EFF’s antics clearly exposed a deep reluctance on the part of Ms Mbete and the African National Congress to invoke the new rules and have the protection service remove the EFF MPs.
For the first time in almost a year Mr Zuma was able to complete a question session, albeit with masses of unruly interjections and numerous infractions of the rules governing debate in the house. During Mr Zuma’s last question time in June, he did not get to give a single reply, and last August he was shouted down as EFF MPs chanted “pay back the money”.
Answering EFF leader Julius Malema, Mr Zuma said the matter of the spending at Nkandla was before the ad hoc committee of Parliament so the question of when he would repay the money was “premature”. He gave the assur- ance that he would respond further once all the processes were concluded.
Mr Malema was not satisfied, accusing the president of not answering a simple question of the date and method he would use to pay the money. He said the only legally binding report was that of public protector Thuli Madonsela and she had ordered he repay some of the R246m spent on his home.
Chaos ensued when Mr Zuma insisted that he had answered the question and maintained that Ms Madonsela’s report included recommendations not judgments.
The matter is now almost cer- tain to end up in the courts. Mr Malema’s last words during yesterday’s session were: “We will see you in court.”
Mr Zuma also came under pressure from Democratic Alliance (DA) leader Mmusi Maimane, who charged that the president had violated the Constitution and the separation of powers when he and his Cabinet allowed Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir to escape SA when a court had ordered that he be arrested.
Mr Zuma insisted that Mr Bashir had been a guest of the African Union and not SA and that any area where the African Union operated became its territory.
In the context of mining job cuts, Mr Maimane said that despite Mr Zuma promising 5-million jobs during his time in office, more than 1.6-million jobs had been lost.
The DA leader asked Mr Zuma whether Economic Development Minister Ebrahim Patel would be removed from his Cabinet post because of the parlous state of affairs in job creation. With Khulekani Magubane
Late last night the ANC majority in the ad hoc committe on Nkandla rejected an opposition minority report and fully endorsed Police Minister Nathi Nhleko’s report, which completely absolved Mr Zuma from repaying any of the money spent on his Nkandla home.