Mbete, Ndlozi argue about Ndlozi’s ‘passion’ in parliament

President Jacob Zuma’s address got off to a rocky start after Economic Freedom Fighters MPs refused to listen to him, also insisting on referring to the president as “Duduzane’s father”.

As National Assembly speaker Baleka Mbete kept telling EFF MPs to sit down, its leader, Julius Malema, told Mbete it was her duty to listen to everyone in the House.

“We have the right to speak here, whether you’re irritated with us or not, you must listen to us,” he told Mbete.

Among other reasons, Mbete was irritated by the EFF for insisting on referring to the president as “Duduzane’s father”. Being reprimanded for referring to him as that meant the president was ready to abandon Duduzane as his son, argued Malema.

“If you work for your family, you will be called Duduzane’s father, he has stopped being the father of the nation. He must stop feeding his family,” he added.

Malema said he would keep referring to him as that, accusing Mbete of being “inconsistent”.

The party’s national spokesperson Dr Mbuyiseni Ndlozi said there was nothing wrong with referring to the president as “Duduzane’s father” as it was an African thing to do.

“In our culture, it is respectful and right to refer to someone has someone’s father or mother,” he argued, dismissing parliament’s rule which is against referring to someone in their personal capacity.

What ensued was a debate on whether Ndlozi was shouting at the speaker, or just being passionate.

Ndlozi said he was not shouting at anyone, but his raised voice showed he was passionate about what he was saying, arguing that it was an “African thing”.

Mbete was accused of being inconsistent as she has herself referred to the president as “baba”. She denied having used the word before, saying she always called him “honourable president”.

Other EFF members still refused to be addressed by the president, calling him a “rapist”.

Another asked if it was possible to subject the president to a lie-detector test as “Zuma’s presidency is a crime in progress”.