Zuma comes out with guns blazing

President mocks opposition critics in off-the-cuff reply to his debate

WITH his trademark giggle, President Jacob Zuma yesterday tore into opposition parties in a fiery off-the-cuff departure from his prepared Presidency debate response. Replying to Tuesday’s marathon six-hour debate in which the release of the Marikana report was top of the agenda, Zuma told those parties calling for its release they suffered “from poverty of politics”.

On Tuesday, the EFF held up signs in the house for the duration of Zuma’s speech calling for the report’s release.

“[They] are saying: ‘We want the report.’ But when you get the report and read it, you can’t do anything about it,” Zuma said.

“The president must say what must be done with the recommendations.”

He said the report would be released once he had applied his mind to it and its recommendations.

The reason the report had been made in the first place was because the government had ordered an investigation into the deaths of miners at Marikana, Zuma said.

He also addressed the matter of decorum in parliament, saying the behaviour of some members, with their insults and countless points of order, undermined the intelligence of the voters who put them there.

“Parliament is an important pillar of our democracy. Members of parliament must demonstrate that they take parliament seriously, so that our people can continue to look up to this institution,” he said.

“Let us respect one another and raise our issues with dignity.”

But, going off-book, he addressed the matter of Nkandla – putting the ANC benches into stitches.

“Some people who could not even say Nkandla – they called it Nkaaaandla – have now learnt how to say it.”

He said parliament should not spend “one year discussing the house of one man . . . just a house”.

He also referred to DA leader Mmusi Ma- imane’s state of the nation speech, in which he called Zuma a broken man.

He said the opposition was so negative that it always spoke of a “broken president in a broken country”.

Zuma said the economy was constrained by energy, the high cost of broadband, labour issues and a cumbersome regulatory environment.

ý A briefing on the Nkandla report that was due to take place last night was postponed to today.