EFF ordered to apologise to Ramaphosa for SONA disruption
Parliament's Powers and Privileges Committee has ordered six EFF MPs, including party leader Julius Malema and his deputy Floyd Shivambu, to apologise to President Cyril Ramaphosa for disrupting his State of the Nation Address in February.
They have also been ordered to apologise to National Assembly Speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, Parliament and the public.
The committee also ordered that all six MPs have one month's salary docked in February next year.
The MPs were found guilty of being in contempt of Parliament after they crossed the floor and jumped onto the podium where Ramaphosa was speaking.
The party was protesting what they believed to be a cover-up by Ramaphosa over the money stolen from his Phala Phala farm.
Other sanctioned MPS include Marshall Dlamini, Sinawo Tambo, Vuyani Pambo, and Mbuyiseni Ndlozi.
The committee's initiator, Advocate Anton Katz, recommended a ten-day suspension from 6 February 2024 to 16 February.
This would see the MPs miss the State of the Nation Address scheduled for 8 February.
"It is clear that the six members do not take SONA seriously, and they took it as an opportunity, so a message needs to be sent that SONA is a serious event – a constitutional event set out in Section 84 of the Constitution,” said Katz.
“We submit that an appropriate sanction for those six affected members is to miss out on SONA 2024, so that’s an appropriate section – S12(5) (g) to suspend them for ten days with or without remuneration.”
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