Democratic Alliance (DA) leader John Steenhuisen. Picture: Parliament
In a lighter moment in parliament, several Members of Parliament (MPs) had to defend themselves from Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) MP Mbuyiseni Ndlozi at the Cape Town City Hall on Friday.
MPs debated President Cyril Ramaphosa’s plan of action at the Cape Town City Hall on Friday, following his address on Thursday.
Democratic Alliance (DA) leader John Steenhuisen was booed by EFF MPs as he walked to the podium, and as if he walked there prepared, thanked them for “that wonderfully warm welcome from the Hadeda benches”.
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It did not end there for Steenhuisen and the EFF as Ndlozi later rose on “a point of order” to remind Steenhuisen that he was a matriculant, unlike MK party chief whip John Hlophe, who made it as a judge before his impeachment this year.
“I wanted to respectfully address this honourable member with his rightful title as a matriculant. Seeing that there are confusions of titles today. This [Hlophe] is a judge, and this [Steenhuisen] is a matriculant.”
However, Steenhuisen had a perfect comeback in which he reminded Ndlozi of the party’s struggle to fight off Venda Building Society (VBS) Mutual Bank allegations this week.
The party’s former national chairperson Dali Mpofu attended media interviews this week in an attempt to clear the EFF’s name.
READ MORE: ‘Every bank has money from poor people,’ says Mpofu on VBS donation to EFF
This was after the party allegedly received a donation from the bank which was then declared insolvent and bankrupt in 2018.
The scandal saw the elderly sleeping outside the bank in an attempt to retrieve the money they had deposited into the bank.
According to the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), about R2.3 billion was looted from VBS’ coffers.
EFF leaders denied any part in this.
In his defence on Friday, Steenhuisen said qualifications held by the EFF top brass were no consolation for the elderly who lost their money to VBS.
“I think the grannies and the pensioners and their stokvels who had their money taken from VBS don’t sleep any better knowing that the people who stole from them have doctorates and masters degrees,” said Steenhuisen.
But Ndlozi did not end there. He went on to call out Patriotic Alliance (PA) leader Gayton McKenzie for “lying” about the country’s sovereign wealth fund.
“Don’t mislead the country. There is no sovereign wealth fund in this country. Take us seriously, please,” said Ndlozi after rising on a point of order.
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McKenzie, however, had to preserve his dignity, and reduced Ndlozi to Julius Malema’s “ice boy”.
“Your peers, you always talk about education, are delivering papers while you’re an ice boy being sent around. You must not come to me. Don’t tell me about education.”
Ndlozi further defended MK party chief whip John Hlophe. This was after McKenzie slammed Hlophe for criticising the Roman-Dutch Law, which he used to judge cases during his time.
“I want to say to Judge Hlophe, I’m sitting there and I’m shocked because you sent many of my old friends to jail with Roman-Dutch Law, which you enjoyed,” said McKenzie.
“You talk about the blue lights, while you were talking about the perks of being a judge, you never saw anything wrong with Roman-Dutch Law. Today, when you’re no longer there, now you see something wrong.”
ALSO READ: Hlophe gives McKenzie his flowers in parliament, slams Ramaphosa with Mbeki quote
But McKenzie had it twisted, according to Ndlozi.
“The judge has written a thesis when he was on the bench attacking Roman-Dutch law. Your illiteracy has not been bypassed. You come here and you lie, you must read. He didn’t even talk about sports and arts, but spoke of prison.”
