EFF: Scrap this year's SONA
The EFF has written a letter to National Assembly Speaker Baleka Mbete, demanding that the State Of The Nation Address be set aside to debate a few issues.
In a statement the EFF says that instead of giving President Jacob Zuma an opportunity to address a joint sitting of Parliament on the 9th of February, the date must be set aside to debate the following:
- The failure by Parliament to hold Mr Zuma to account, despite a clear ruling by the Constitutional Court that he had failed to uphold his oath of office (Economic Freedom Fighters v Speaker of the National Assembly and Others; Democratic Alliance v Speaker of the National Assembly and Others [2016] ZACC 11).
- The threat to our constitution and democracy of having Mr Zuma continue as President of the Republic of South Africa.
"The background to this is that on the 6th of April 2016, following the Constitutional Court judgement on the Nkandla matter, we wrote a letter to the Speaker calling for a disciplinary inquiry into the conduct of Mr Jacob Zuma for breach of his oath of office as stated in s83(b) of the Constitution, read with s181(3) and s182(1)(c). The Speaker did not respond affirmatively to our demand and consequently, no action has been taken till today," the statement says.
The EFF also rejected Parliament's decision to assign the State Security Agency to do vetting of guests who will be attending the State of the Nation Address.
"There is no provision in law for such. This, again, is a demonstration of Parliament's determination to render our country a lawless and mafia State. We want to state categorically that we are not going to comply with this illegal arrangement," the statement says.