EFF ‘still to discuss’ whether to disrupt state of the nation address

EFF secretary-general Marshall Dlamini says the party is still to discuss whether it will carry out its threat to disrupt the state of the nation address (Sona) next week.

Dlamini was addressing the media in Centurion, Gauteng, on Thursday, at the party’s first planning meeting of the year.

“We will sit with central command team members to discuss the program of action for the year; this includes the problem of SOEs and then on Sunday we will be able to present the program of action. That is the reason why we are here,” said Dlamini.

Last month EFF leader Julius Malema threatened to disrupt Sona if President Cyril Ramaphosa did not fire Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan.

“I want to tell Cyril Ramaphosa today, that if he can’t fire Pravin before the state of the nation address, the state of the nation address shall be about Pravin,” he said at the time during a rally in Mamusa in the North West.

“We will stand up there, we will stop him from speaking. We will tell him he must fire Pravin because we must protect South Africa’s asset. We are not going to allow them to steal the asset of South Africa under our watch,” he said.

“Pravin must go and Pravin must go now. Pravin can’t be trusted. He works for white monopoly capital. He’s a dog of white monopoly capital, he does everything for white monopoly capital,” Malema added.

Read: Malema’s Parly disruption threats are ‘irresponsible’, presiding officers warn

The party has twice before threatened to disrupt Ramaphosa’s speeches, but has not followed through.

The EFF has a reputation for its dramatic interruptions of Sona proceedings, most notably when former president Jacob Zuma was still in power.

The disruptions captured public attention for the way in which Parliament security – known as the “white shirts” – violently evicted MPs from the chambers.

However on Thursday, parliamentary Speaker Thandi Modise said that Parliament was not concerned with the EFF’s threat to disrupt this year’s address.

She said that Parliament was ready for Sona and was not aware of any planned disruptions.

Modise announced that Parliament would not go out of its way to plan something extraordinary in light of the struggling economy.

Modise said Parliament remains sensitive to the prevailing economic challenges, and that the budget for the annual event was carefully designed to ensure that key features of the ceremony were retained.

“The Sona is the second of this current financial year (2019/20), with the first being held in June last year following the 2019 elections.

“Consistent with the trend of the previous years, indications are that the spending on both events will be far less than the budgeted amount,” Modise said.

“A total of R7.3 million has been budgeted for both events. The June Sona, which also served as the official opening of the sixth democratic Parliament, cost the institution R2.6 million,” Modise said.

Some aspects of the ceremony have been cut back to ensure Parliament was prudent with the budget.

Dlamini on Thursday also said that the EFF were not expecting much by way of innovative solutions to rescue the economy from Ramaphosa because he does not have a plan.

“The economy is not growing and we are not expecting much from Cyril because he has never had a plan,” Dlamini said.

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