Parliament: de Klerk is staying
Speaker of the National Assembly, Thandi Modise, ruled that former apartheid President FW de Klerk, will remain in Parliament for President Cyril Ramaphosa's State of the Nation Address (SONA).
This is after objections were raised by the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) on Thursday evening, that De Klerk should not be part of the proceedings.
The EFF's comments come after a TV interview in which De Klerk denied that apartheid was a crime against humanity.
#SONA2020 The Parliament gets off to a rough start - EFF's Julius Malema raises a point of order, calling for former president FW de Klerk to leave the house. pic.twitter.com/cnPEH9oHH0
— Jacaranda News (@JacaNews) February 13, 2020
"This sitting has been called for one item and one time only. To give the President the space to address the nation. It is convention that all the former Presidents who are still alive are invited to this sitting. The former President De Klerk has been invited becauses of that. I therefore cannot sustain this submission you have made and therefore rule it out of order," said Modise.
SONA 2020 was been delayed for 1 hour and 30 minutes, after back-to-back disruptions by the EFF.
Part of the EFF's demands also included that Public Enteprises Minister Pravin Gordhan, should be sacked by President Ramaphosa.