‘Pravin must go’ – Sona 2020 suspended following an hour of EFF disruptions

President Cyril Ramaphosa’s state of the nation address was postponed on Thursday night following nearly an hour of disruptions from the Economic Freedom Fighters.

Sona is a joint sitting of the two houses of Parliament and brings together all arms of the state under one roof.

Ramaphosa was expected to outline government’s programme of action for the year in Parliament at 7pm. But the EFF members jumped up almost immediately on points of order.

Before Ramaphosa even rose to get to the podium, EFF leader Julius Malema rose on a point of order asking that former president FW de Klerk leave Parliament.

De Klerk was among the attendees in the National Assembly on Thursday evening.

Former South African President FW de Klerk arrives at the state of the nation address at Parliament in Cape Town. Picture: Brenton Geach/Pool via Reuters

Malema said: “We have a murderer, a man who has the blood of innocent people on his hands in the House... We please request that De Klerk leave this House because he doesn’t belong in this House. The man with blood on his hands should leave this Parliament.”

Speaker Thandi Modise responded to Malema and said the sitting was called for one item only: to give the president the space to address the nation.

“It is a convention that all former presidents who are still alive are invited to this sitting. The former president De Klerk has been invited because of that.”

Modise said she could not sustain the submission and ruled Malema's point out of order.

The next attack was directed towards Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan, who according to the EFF had “caused load shedding” and “collapsed state-owned entities”.

Modise suspended the House after 55 minutes at which point the EFF members started chanting: “Pravin must go! Pravin must go!”

Traditionally, the president makes key government announcements during this important joint sitting of Parliament. Ramaphosa tried to start his speech at least three times.

“This drama that we saw inside was planned,” said deputy minister of state security Zizi Kodwa, who said he was speaking on behalf of the government.

“Desperate South Africans wanted to hear what their president had to say. This sitting will continue, whatever it takes. The president will address the nation tonight.”

He added that he felt that people disrupting the House should have been made to leave the House.

The rules state that the presiding officer could have called the necessary services to remove them from the House.

DA chief whip Natasha Mazzone said that “tonight’s antics of the EFF to disrupt the state of the nation address, on a series of spurious points, shows the childishness and immaturity of the party”.

She said that, at a time in our nation when urgent solutions are needed to pressing crises in our country, the EFF has chosen to prevent the president confronting these.

“The DA has expectations for clear and definitive answers from the president tonight, and should he be prevented from addressing the nation we move further backward as a nation.

“The EFF must abide by the rules of Parliament, and the EFF must allow the president to speak.”

The presiding officers called the House back at 8.10pm, and asked the EFF members to withdraw their statements.

This was followed by EFF members jumping up shouting “points of order”.

The EFF members eventually started making their way out of the House at 8.15pm and the state of the nation address continued at 8.30pm.

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