Malema: Speaker has 48hrs to apologise or face ConCourt challenge

EFF members were forcefully removed after charging onto the stage and disrupting President’ Cyril Ramaphosa’s State of the Nation Address.

Party leader Julius Malema has labelled the presence of the SAPS as an invasion of Parliament and a violation of members’ constitutional right to freedom of speech.

On Friday the red beret’s leader held a press conference at the Marks Building in Cape Town, where accused the speaker of calling EFF MPs animals when ordering their removal.

He said they’ll be tabling a motion of no confidence against the speaker.

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“We also take note that in the process of the police evicting members of Parliament, Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula said ‘animals out’ which was in reference to EFF MPs. Referring to MPs as animals is against the rules of National Assembly and is altogether unacceptable. We will therefore be reporting the speaker to the rules committee of Parliament and will, as a matter of urgency, be tabling a motion of no confidence against the speaker for referring to MPs as animals,” says Malema.

He also says they’ve sought legal advice and will take the matter to the highest court in the land, should Mapisa-Nqakula fail to accede to the demands that they’ve outlined in the letter addressed to her.

“The speaker will get 48 hours upon receiving our letter to publicly withdraw and apologise, and she should do so with the protection services by distancing themselves from the act of the security services and they should do so in a form of a press conference. If the speaker fails to do so in 48 hours, we will approach the Constitutional Court because, at the level where we are, we think that this matter deals directly with the Constitution and do not need other lower courts to deal with these matters.”

Malema denied claims that he and his colleagues posed a physical threat to the president or any other members of Parliament, adding that as members of Parliament, they have the right to express their opinion in any form.

The party maintains they simply went on stage to hold up placards in protest against the president addressing the nation while the Phala Phala scandal remains unresolved.