EFF collapses parliament again
PAY BACK THE MONEY CAUSES CHAOS
OPPOSITION parties yesterday ganged up on the EFF after Julius Malema’s party collapsed the house again over the Nkandla saga.
DA chief whip John Steenhuisen accused EFF of helping Zuma to avoid accountability on other matters except Nkandla.
“The EFF were well aware that the issue of Nkandla was not up for discussion today, but as a result of their obstinate insistance that the matter be discussed the agreed upon programme was unnecessarily delayed and procedings ultimately adjourned,” he said.
“The DA will not be party to the destruction of the institutions of our democracy by rogue parties with no respect for parliamentary procedure,” he added.
National Assembly Speaker Baleka Mbete suspended proceedings after two and a half hours of disruption, saying the EFF was undermining the will of South Africa ’ s people.
Earlier, Mbete adjourned the house and requested the chief whips of all political parties to meet and during a stormy closed meeting, EFF representatives made it clear they would continue disrupting until Zuma had apologised for his behaviour in parliament. The ANC refused to agree to this.
Zuma was scheduled to answer six specific questions from MPs, with follow-up questions by other MPs, but none of the questions were related to Nkandla. The ANC in Parliament called for action against the EFF and that the party be shunned.
“The EFF ’ s pursuance of self-seeking headlines-grabbing stunts knows no bounds, and would stop at nothing even it means rendering unworkable the sanctity and decorum of an important constitutional institution such as Parliament,” ANC parliamentary spokesman Moloto Mothapo said.
“A conducive environment ought to be created, firmly in line with the Constitution and parliamentary rules, to ensure that those who have nothing to offer the electorate, whose sole raison d'être is indulging in an orgy of publicity stunts at the expense of parliament ’ s constitutional role, are isolated and shunned.”
For its part, the EFF accused the DA of colluding with the ANC to shield Zuma from accounting for the money spent on his private residence.
“The EFF, unlike the DA, will never accept Zuma's ridicule and instructions that we must all move on and raise other important issues, ” EFF spokesman Mbuyiseni Ndlozi said last night.
“The EFF will never accept a situation that it is business as usual when it comes to the Nkandla question because we have done a thorough ideological critique of post-colonial countries that the protection of corruption will lead to the collapse our democracy,” he added.