STATE OF THE NATION ADDRESS
Per-Sona non grata: EFF leader Malema, five others fail to overturn suspension
EFF leader Julius Malema, his deputy Floyd Shivambu, secretary-general Marshall Dlamini, EFF MP Mbuyiseni Ndlozi and two others failed in a last-minute court bid to overturn their suspension so they could attend Thursday’s State of the Nation.
Hours before the State of the Nation Address (Sona) the Western Cape High Court dismissed the EFF MPs’ bid to overturn their salary-less suspension for February because they had failed to show good reasons or that they would suffer real harm and prejudice.
“The court has to pay due and proper respect to Parliament’s competence to regulate its process and affairs, including the disciplining of members…” said the full Bench judgement.
Parliament’s choice and timing of the suspension of EFF leader Julius Malema and the five others was “deliberate and conscious” — and the EFF MPs not being able to attend Sona was “both as punishment for their behaviour at the previous year’s Sona and to prevent them from possibly causing a similar disruption at this year’s one”, according to the judgment.
Malema, his deputy Floyd Shivambu, secretary-general Marshall Dlamini, EFF MP Mbuyiseni Ndlozi and two others were suspended without pay for the month of February for contempt of Parliament for disrupting the 2023 Sona. Malema and others walked with placards to the stage where President Ramaphosa was sitting.
Read more in Daily Maverick: Armed police in the House set the stage for Ramaphosa declaring a National State of Disaster
The initial court application against the suspension was struck off the court roll as the voluminous documents were filed late, and proceeding with the case could have amounted to a miscarriage of justice, according to the majority on the full Bench.
Read more in Daily Maverick: Sona no-go for EFF leader Julius Malema and five others after high court bid fails
Thursday’s Western Cape High Court ruling is the latest in a series of court decisions that have gone against the EFF, most recently its bid against the new rules for joint sittings, setting down the president may not be disrupted when delivering Sona.
Read more in Daily Maverick: EFF in new court bid to attend Sona, now with stricter rules
Those rules were adopted in early December with all but 23 EFF MPs voting for them, signalling impatience from other political parties also on the opposition benches with the EFF tactics of disruption.
EEF leader Julius Malema and deputy Floyd Shivambu at the party’s 10th-anniversary celebration at FNB Stadium in Johannesburg on 29 July, 2023. (Photo: Gallo Images / Papi Morake)
However, the new joint sitting rules raise serious questions, including for expressly allowing weapons in the House which is a first in democratic South Africa — even if qualified by “in extraordinary circumstances” — and expressly permitting the use of force to evict rowdy MPs.
Earlier in February EFF Chief Whip and deputy leader Floyd Shivambu also lost his bid to overturn the sanction of nine day’s salary deduction for failing to declare R180,000 received in 2017 from Sgameka Pty Limited, a company linked to the VBS mutual bank scandal. The liquidator of VBS testified before Parliament’s joint ethics committee before it found Shivambu contravened the ethics code. The sanction was subsequently adopted in the House.
Parliament’s presiding officers National Assembly Speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula and National Council of Provinces (Ncop) Chairperson Amos Masondo on Wednesday said all was in place for Sona.
“We are absolutely happy with all the work and demonstrated the meticulous planning that went into this major event,” said a statement by Parliament.
The State of the Nation Address will be delivered from 7pm after the ceremonial pomp and ceremony which will see the return of the civil guards for the first time in several years, while Ramaphosa will take the 21-gun salute next to the statue of South Africa’s first democratically elected president Nelson Mandela at the City Hall. DM
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Who wants to listen to lies of Sona?Maybe Julius s puppetmaster is not gonna pay him if he doesnt attend
The quandary for the bystander to the cringeworthy circus that is our state and government, replete with all manner of clown and buffoon, is whom to support here. On the one hand, Pope Malema and his Cardinals are fractious and clamorous provocateurs whose only mission is to gather as much of the limelight as possible, while on the other hand, Ramaposeur, Inc. deserve all of the flak, and more, that they would get for their feeble fecklessness and central role in the further destruction of this country.
Anyway, with or without EFF leadership attending, #NotWatchingSONA.
Our MPs get paid a lot of money, SONA costs a fortune and to have it interrupted every year by a bunch of infantile clowns for their own egotistical purposes doesn’t help ordinary South Africans one bit. Let the bore drone through his lies uninterrupted and slink off to a dollar-stuffed couch somewhere, so we can all get on with our lives and then have the opposition tear it to pieces afterwards.
Surprised Vicky hasn’t chimed in
For EFF – play stupid games – win stupid prizes. For other MP’s (if the shoe fits …..) if you have been accused of failing at your job, nepotism, cronyism, corruption or are one of those (still) pursuing the NDR – or defending the indefensible ANC, GET OUT and make room for a person who will serve diligently and honestly.
So, were Looking forward to a Sona which promises marvellously boring now that Ramaphosa can deliver a speech filled strings of his usual unbearable platitudes. The excitement of watching the boorish Malema and his mob of hangers-on is no longer to be, thanks to their entire caucus (circus?) now boycotting a Sona armed with strict new house rules. Maybe they’re getting clever and simply sparing themselves the crushing boredom of another Ramaphosa ramble replete with hysterical applause from his own mob of hangers-on.
Why only the president at sona? They need to bring this in for all speeches/ debates. turn off the mic’s of everyone except the person speaking. Use an app for members to register a point of order in real time, with the detail of what the p.o.o. is. The parliamentary laywers can field, and if justified, they can stop the speech and let the complainant speak. Those that start screaming and banging on desks like petulant children should be tasered, dragged out and suspended for 3 months . . .
“Those that start screaming and banging on desks like petulant children should be tasered”, as much as I support this comment, it seems that our current administration does have a problem with administering current!
…
I’ll see myself out.
(In the dark.)
🤣🤣🤣 Made my day. Thank you!
position of the rep.
Too little, too late
It’s ironic how hard they tried to participate in an event that they later decided to boycott. But I guess that matches their Gucci fashion tastes while pretending to represent the interests of the economically oppressed.
The EFF parliamentarians must be charged for dereliction of duty because they were AWOL from the SONA!
They must be fined an amount equivalent to a day’s salary for NOT performing their duty as representatives of the voters.
EFF will be not penalised. Watching a movie was preferable to hearing Ramaphosa and his supporters spew diabolical rhetoric. I endorse the EFF members who were not present at that SONA as a voter. Thy missed nothing.
Like you Juliarse, I didn’t see SONA…. my choice!