WATCH: EFF MPs challenge Mbete to let them turn up the heat on Ramaphosa

The red berets were at it again during President Cyril Ramaphosa’s question and answer session in Parliament. And National Assembly speaker Baleka Mbete was adamant she would not let the EFF’s antics “waste” Parliament’s time.

The contentious question of the day was exactly how much the state spent on former president Jacob Zuma’s legal bills and which legal framework decided how far government would cover Zuma’s numerous court cases.

Ramaphosa told Parliament that just about R15 million had been spent on the cases and that there was an agreement signed with Zuma that should he lose the cases, he would be liable to pay the money back to government.

The EFF was having none of that, pointing out to Ramaphosa that “in our own calculations, we are sitting at almost R64 million” for the “constitutional delinquent”, who is now campaigning for the ruling party in various provinces.

“He is good enough to campaign for your beautiful face. You must be ashamed that he is carrying your placards, same way as Qedani Mahlangu. You are so proud to have delinquents around and you, and claim you are clean.”

“The honourable Malema is quoting R64 million. I am not aware of that. We are using an agreement between former president Zuma and the state,” Ramaphosa explained and appealed to the opposition MPs to distinguish between cases Zuma had lost and those he is appealing.

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Ramaphosa also promised to get back to the EFF after “checking” the figures and reminded the fighters that the primary reason Zuma received government’s cover was because the charges he faced were from a time when he occupied a government position. He stressed it would be the dishonourable thing to do if government were to demand that Zuma pay back the money and that this would be a violation of the agreement.

“I have written a question to the president about which policy he has used. He should have checked before he comes here. What is the purpose of writing a question? What is the purpose of this exercise?” Malema told Mbete, who had ordered him several times to take a seat and suggested he take the matter outside.

“Where would I find him? In Sandhurst?” Malema retorted.

Floyd Shivambu refused to let the matter rest, and urged Mbete to keep in mind that questions to the president were an essential method of holding him and the executive accountable when she said: “The president has answered.”

This seemed to have propelled Ramaphosa into action, deciding to go ahead and answer the question despite Shivambu being told his question would not be allowed to waste “Parliament’s time”.

“Madam Speaker, I would like to deal with [the question]. It did say, what is the total amount? If [Zuma] loses, will he be willing and able to pay the money. If that fails, government has other means through which to receive the money. We did not sign a guarantee. We did not go that extent,” said Ramaphosa.

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