An EFF member is removed from Parliament after disrupting proceedings at the Presidency Budget Vote on 9 June 2022 in Cape Town, South Africa. Photo: Gallo Images/Brenton Geach
President Cyril Ramaphosa’s response to the Presidency’s budget speech debate has once again been suspended on Friday, after Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) MPs continued to disrupt proceedings.
This comes after the president’s presentation in the National Assembly chambers descended into chaos on Thursday, when EFF members continuously heckled Ramaphosa and other ANC MPs.
Moments after Ramaphosa started his speech on Friday morning, an EFF MP raised a point of order.
Sticking to the same tactic that the party used on Thursday, EFF MP Sinawo Tambo insisted that the national Assembly cannot be addressed by Ramaphosa.
EFF MP Hlengiwe Mkhaliphi was then kicked off the virtual platform for the meeting when she kept asking why the speech was continuing.
After speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula warned the EFF that she would not allow the sitting to be disrupted, Tambo and Naledi Chirwa were removed.
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Scuffles then broke out between the Red Berets and security officials, with footage showing EFF MPS screaming, pushing and throwing bottles of water.
Some of the EFF members were also seen being dragged out of the chambers by the security officials.
The disruptions come as the EFF vowed earlier in the week to disrupt Parliament if Ramaphosa is allowed to deliver the budget vote.
The party said the president should not be allowed to address Parliament after it emerged that $4 million (about R61 million) in cash was stolen from his game farm in Limpopo two years ago.
Ramaphosa has come under increasing public pressure to come clean on the robbery at his Phala Phala game farm after former spy boss Arthur Fraser laid a criminal complaint against him of money laundering, kidnapping and corruption.
The removals on Friday come after the EFF slammed the same actions on Thursday.
In a statement, the EFF said it “condemned” the behaviour of Mapisa-Nqakula, labelling it as “disgusting and barbaric”.
“There was a clear agenda to suppress the leadership of what is the only official opposition in Parliament, while other parties stood by silently and allowed a money-launderer and kidnapper to address the nation.”
“There is no rule that allows the Speaker to indefinitely deny members of parliament points of order. It is pure dictatorship, guesswork and partisanship for the Speaker to decide when, where and how the president, in this case Ramaphosa, can be held accountable,” it added.
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