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Empty seats will greet President Jacob Zuma this afternoon in the National Assembly as opposition parties boycott the session.
The Democratic Alliance, Economic Freedom Fighters, Cope and the Freedom Front Plus have no plans to attend the session that will see Zuma reply to the debate on the budget speech of the presidency.
The DA decided during its caucus meeting this morning that its members would stay away, though no official announcement had been made at the time of filing this report.
United Democratic Movement leader Bantu Holomisa said his party was consulting with other parties, “but there is a 90 % chance that the UDM will not be there”, he said.
EFF spokesperson Mbuyiseni Ndlozi said: “Zuma can talk to the ANC – they seem to be comfortable with a liar and thief.”
Sixteen of the party’s 25 MPs were yesterday removed from the house at the order of Baleka Mbete, Parliament’s speaker of the assembly. They were suspended from Parliament for five days.
“We have been suspended and the rest of our members have been deployed elsewhere in the country,” Ndlozi said.
Party leader Julius Malema was also not in Cape Town.
Ndlozi added that the party could not give legitimacy to a president who had violated the Constitution.
Dr Corné Mulder, chief whip of the FF Plus, said the party would not attend the sitting. He said the president could speak to his own caucus.
“After his performance on Wednesday and the Constitutional Court’s ruling [against Zuma], we decided that we would not attend.”
Dennis Bloem, spokesperson for Cope, who has been boycotting Parliament for a month and had asked other parties to join them, said it was clear that the ANC was determined to continue to disrespect the Constitution and the rule of law.
“They will do anything in their power to a protect discredited individual who holds the highest office in the country.”
He added that opposition parties who continued to participate in parliamentary activities were also guilty of undermining the Constitutional Court’s decision.
