You can withdraw my membership from this useless Parliament: Malema

President Cyril Ramaphosa’s presidency budget vote in Parliament degenerated into yet another EFF versus the speaker face-off on Wednesday.

“Occupy land” was the reverberating chant from defiant EFF members as they were ushered out of Parliament by the sergeants at arms.

The drama came after Deputy Speaker Lechesa Tsenoli finally deemed that the members were rising on motions that only sought to disrupt the progression of the budget vote.

What started off as a presidency budget vote – or, more accurately, the president blowing his own horn on the achievements of his office leading up to his 100th day since taking charge on Saturday – soon turned into a platform for opposition parties to burst his bubble and remind him of the long arduous journey ahead.

Ramaphosa did not hold back when given the platform.

Kick-starting the proceedings, the president recounted how, since the departure of his predecessor Jacob Zuma, the country had enjoyed a renewed return in investor confidence.

The buoyant Ramaphosa reminded the nation that before he stepped in, South Africa experienced unprecedented levels of “state capture”.

However, his administration had “identified the problems” and was “poised to making significant progress towards building the South Africa we all want”.

In an attempt at winning over the youth – in a country currently facing a shocking youth unemployment rate of 67.4% – Ramaphosa said apart from the job summit to be hosted by South Africa later this year, the youth employment service, which was launched in March under his administration, had “received commitment from 20 companies that they would be providing 22 000 work experience opportunities for young people”.

According to the president, another 18 companies were also set to unlock 21 000 job opportunities.

“In a very short space of time since the establishment of the service, in just six weeks, we have been able to get to almost 50 000 job opportunities for young people,” boasted Ramaphosa.

The president also pointed the nation’s attention to the rigorous change in boards of most of the state-owned entities: “Denel, Prasa, Transnet and earlier in the year Eskom all had their boards revamped so that they may start operation in a profitable manner that benefit our people.”

For the crimes committed before he got into office, Ramaphosa indicated that there was an ongoing commission of inquiry into the matter that will be releasing its findings soon and he assured South Africans that those found guilty will be prosecuted.

The president announced he would be contribute half his presidential salary to a fund to be managed by the Nelson Mandela Foundation and would direct resources to many small social projects scattered across the country.

In yet another move to clean up law enforcement agencies‚ Ramaphosa announced that he had established a commission of inquiry to probe governance issues at the South African Revenue Service.

“The stabilisation of the revenue service has received priority attention. I have today signed a proclamation establishing a commission of inquiry into tax administration and governance chaired by former judge Robert Nugent and assisted by Michael Katz‚ Advocate Mabongi Masilo and Vuyo Khahla‚” Ramaphosa told MPs.

In stepped the well-spoken leader of the opposition Mmusi Maimane.

He reminded Ramaphosa of his recent defeat that saw him say he would not oppose the DA’s court application to scrap the deal by which the state would cover all of Zuma’s legal defence fees.

A buoyant Maimane said that meant Zuma’s retirement, “filled with legal battles”, would “be as uncomfortable as his presidency was for the people of South Africa”.

Maimane, looking in Ramaphosa’s direction, said what this country really needed was real political reform and a break from a racially divided political atmosphere.

Ramaphosa had been called out on numerous occasions in Parliament for referring to black people as “our people” when talking about land expropriation.

“The current political environment demands a president who is committed to all citizens and not just some citizens, said Maimane.

Maimane said Ramaphosa should not be beating his chest in success with regards to “merely changing the boards of state-owned entities” as this was a futile effort.

“Instead of changing board members, the government should just sell entities such as South African Airways,” he said, because they were draining taxpayers’ money.

Next to the podium, to remind Ramaphosa of his shortcomings, was EFF leader Julius Malema.

Malema reminded MPs of the president’s state of the nation address made shortly after taking office.

He said: “You promised a job summit in the next few months but nothing has happened and now you have postponed it to later in the year.”

The EFF leader also said when Ramaphosa stepped in as president he had assured young people that job creation would be a priority but had since failed and the investment convoy that he had set up, being constituted of the ANC old guard, would not be successful.

Malema said it was now clear from the recently held ANC land summit that the ruling party was now reneging on the issue of land expropriation without compensation.

“It is clear that you are not going to expropriate land without compensation but I need to tell you that as the EFF we had issued an instruction for people to scale down on land occupation.

"But we have now made a call and make it again even now for people to occupy unoccupied land,” said a passionate Malema, followed by a loud applause from his party.

At this point the deputy speaker had already reprimanded the EFF leader on numerous occasions for calling ANC MPs by their first names.

The situation degenerated as Malema continued to point at issues of corruption, particularly within the intelligence agency, and accused the deputy minister of state security, Dipuo Letsatsi-Duba, of being complicit to corruption.

Tsenoli asked Malema to withdraw these allegations and lodge a formal complaint if there were any instances of corruption against Letsatsi-Duba that he knew of.

After numerous disruptions from EFF MPs expressing that the deputy speaker was biased and that he needed to recuse himself, Malema finally withdrew and proceeded with his attack of the Ramaphosa-led administration.

After Malema’s time had run out Tsenoli said that Malema’s call for citizens to occupy land should be cited for scrutiny.

It was a ruling that broke the camel’s back. EFF MPs, led by Malema – who challenged the deputy speaker to withdraw his membership from this “useless Parliament” – stopped the proceedings.

Chanting “occupy land” the EFF members disturbed proceedings until they were escorted out of the house.