Publications
Partners
The Economic Freedom Fighters will lay criminal charges against the
speaker and the protection officers who threw them out of Parliament today when
they refused to let President Jacob Zuma talk about the presidency’s
budget.
After several warnings to stop saying that Zuma should not be
allowed to address the National Assembly, after the Constitutional Court said he
failed to uphold the Constitution over money spent on Nkandla, Speaker Baleka
Mbete started calling EFF members of Parliament’s names out and telling them to
leave.
They refused and gathered around a microphone repeating their
demand, their voices rising in agitation.
When a group of protection offices appeared through the doors of
the National Assembly, a glass of water flew into the air, and some EFF MPs –
men and women – fought against the officers trying to remove them, with MP
Makoti Khawula letting out a stream of angry shouts in isiZulu.
The opposition MPs were pushed out through the warren of passages by the protection officials, but kept up their shouting.
“Zuma should be the one to go!” they shouted, eventually regrouping
outside one of the entrances.
EFF MP Natasha Louw warned one of the officers that if they put a
finger on her she would lay a charge of sexual assault.
The MPs looked shaken, but angry, and EFF deputy president Floyd
Shivambu told reporters that criminal charges would be laid over what had just
happened to them.
But when they tried to go into their offices in the Marks Building,
they were stopped again by some plain clothes officers, but broke through while
one of the officers shouted, “I am only doing my job”.
Meanwhile, back in the National Assembly. Zuma began his address
and told of the better life for all that the government was delivering. – News24
