Zuma mocks ‘useless’, ‘ignorant’ opposition
President insists he ‘never’ refused to pay for Nkandla security upgrades – it’s only a ‘political perception’. SHAME ON THEM: ‘THEY’RE DAMAGING THE COUNTRY’S IMAGE ABROAD’
President Jacob Zuma yesterday mocked the opposition as “useless” and “ignorant”, after rowdy radical MPs repeatedly disrupted his annual State of the Nation Address in parliament.
In the latest attack on the embattled president, who is tainted by graft allegations, members from the EFF noisily interrupted his speech on Thursday night before being ordered out of the chamber.
And yesterday he took aim at the EFF protesters who chanted, calling on him to step down.
“They are showing how useless they are, people will never vote for them,” Zuma said. “They don’t understand democracy; how it works.”
“They just move with the wind when it goes this way, that way. Shame on them.”
The E FF’ sf ire brand leader Julius Male ma had yelled at Zuma that he was “no longer a president that deserves respect from anyone”.
But Zuma said the opposition’s rowdy behaviour was damaging South Africa’s reputation – and working to the ANC’s advantage.
“If the party or the president makes a mistake, there is a process how you deal with that,” he said in his reaction to his latest heckling. “You are really not doing good for your country. You are making this country look bad.”
He said opposition parties were too focused on criticising the ANC and were “not convincing people”.
Zuma is facing moves in court, in parliament and on the streets to have him impeached or dumped by the ANC.
Both the EFF and the DA dragged the president to the Constitutional Court last week over his initial refusal to obey a ruling by the public protector that he repay some of the millions spent on his homestead Nkandla.
Yesterday Zuma insisted he had “never” refused to reimburse for the refurbishments but said the case had been “highly politi- cised”. “This was just a political perception created that I am refusing to pay,” he said.
“What I have been refusing to do is to pay back the money that I don’t know how much it is,” said Zuma, adding that his repaying the money was not an admission that he did “something wrong”.
The court has reserved judgment, and if the ruling goes against Zuma, the EFF has pledged to use it to press for Zuma’s impeachment.