ANC Women’s League vows to protect Zuma during Sona

The ANC Women’s League (ANCWL) on Thursday evening will be ready to take on the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) during President Jacob Zuma’s State of the Nation Address (Sona), should Julius Malema’s party attempt to disrupt the president’s speech.

On Wednesday during a prayer service in Phillipi, Cape Town, ahead of the opening of parliament, league president Bathabile Dlamini said they did not want to see a repeat of 2016’s Sona showdown when the EFF demanded that Zuma account for the nonsecurity upgrades to his private KwaZulu-Natal Nkandla home.

“We know what they’re doing, and we actually know it much better. The areas we come from on a daily basis, there were fights there with the enemy,” Dlamini was quoted by EWN.

Zuma subsequently paid back R7.8 million of the R246 million upgrades after a damning Constitutional Court judgment in March last year that found he had failed to uphold his oath of office by protecting the country’s public resources. He raised the amount through a home loan obtained from a little-known bank, VBS Mutual Bank, on its standard terms.

The EFF has since labelled Zuma a “constitutional delinquent” and incessantly gunned for him when he appeared in parliament on previous occasions. The party has always asked speaker Baleka Mbete not to allow Zuma to address MPs until parliament takes disciplinary action against him, but Mbete has rejected their call.