WATCH: Move! – EFF clashes with police outside City Hall

Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) MPs clashed with South African Police Service (SAPS) members outside the Cape Town City Hall just before President Cyril Ramaphosa’s State of the Nation Address (Sona) on Thursday.

In videos, the EFF MPs can be seen walking outside the city hall, and as they approach the SAPS members, a commotion breaks out.

Unconfirmed reports claim the EFF MPs were using the wrong entrance and the police tried to block them.

It appears the EFF MPs did not understand why they were being stopped from entering and that is when the commotion ensued.

“Move! Go to Christmas, not us. What is the problem, why are you stopping us?” asked a visibly angry Mbuyiseni Ndlozi, as the party’s secretary-general Marshall Dlamini tried to break off the commotion, showing the police officers his access card.

Watch the video below courtesy of the SABC:

Speaking to the media following the Sona, EFF leader Julius Malema said: “The police blocked EFF people from entering parliament. The police always come here agitated. There is a problem of racist police, among them there are coloured police officers and white police officers, so when they see the red overalls, they just get angry for no reason because these are members of parliament,” he said.

“… The secretary-general of the EFF is showing them a card that we are Members of Parliament but they still don’t want to listen, but we can’t allow police to disturb us from doing our job, we’re here to do our job, no police, army will stop us from executing our responsibility. We’re elected to go hold the executive accountable and we shall do so.”

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Malema also criticised Ramaphosa’s address, saying he did not address some of the issues that affect people on a daily basis.

“Nothing was said about the high levels of crime in South Africa. Violent crime and rape that is taking place in this country, no emphasis on how we’re going to deal with that. The state of education, infrastructure, the clinics and hospitals that have collapsed. The president has made no commitment, nothing on international relations, but also a follow up on what they have done so far and therefore this year we’re going to continue this way,” he said.

“The president has given up, he doesn’t have an alternative. The president gets shocked by everything, why would a president come and announce that a person has opened an ice cream store? That is a report of a councillor, not a president. Why is the president telling us about his shoes and his cheap suit and not telling us, ‘this is what we’ve done’. How much has government spent locally? Not those genuine leather shoes of his, that is a side issue which must be spoken when they’re drinking with his friends, it’s not a matter of national importance.”