EFF WILL NOT PARTICIPATE IN THE PARLIAMENT ZUMA QUESTION AND ANSWER SESSION

16 March 2016

The EFF will not participate in the Parliament Question and Answer session with Jacob Zuma scheduled to take place this Thursday. The EFF believes that Zuma should not be afforded the respect and courtesy deserving of a president because he does not respect his oath of office, including the calling of his office.

Zuma has stood in many Question and Answer sessions like this one and told members of parliament lies without any consequences. First, he said he received a loan from FNB to expand his private homestead in Nkndla when he did not. He also said there was no money he had to pay in relation to the Nkandla undue expenditure and later said he had not said so.

His actions have undermined the office of the Public Protector and sought to render ours a lawless country where a president cannot be held accountable. The constitution charges him as president to protect its institutions of democracy, and in defying the Public Protector he failed to protect the constitution.

His decisions to remove Finance Minister Nhlanla Nene without any provocation and replace him with a sophomore like David Van Royen led to a further decline of the economy. To this day, despite all the evidence, Zuma has not seen anything wrong with his decision on Nene and he goes on with business as usual whilst the economy suffers decline and job losses.

We see no value in engaging a man who has no honour, who lies and who is a stooge of the Gupta family. It is an open secret now that all the miasma around finance minister, Pravin Gordhan, was caused by the instructions of the Gupta family who are intent on capturing the Treasury. Zuma and the ANC account to the Guptas. Parliament may as well call Atul Gupta to directly hold him accountable since he is the real president of South Africa and not Jacob Zuma.

The EFF does not recognise Zuma as South Africa’s President and we advice him to resign to save the country and the economy from further decline. Jacob Zuma, with the full backing and protection of the ANC both inside and outside parliament has rendered our democracy toothless and allowed corruption to flourish.

In addition, the EFF has no hope in ANC MPs elevating the interests of South Africa above and turn a Question and Answer session into a meaningful session of accountability. Both Zuma and the ANC have made it abundantly clear that South Africa does not come first. They resort to everything in their power to elevate the interests of individual politicians, in particular those of Zuma.

The EFF will be present in the House to continue with other important parliament business in stead of engaging an illegitimate, dishonourable mythomaniac and kleptocrat in the form of Jacob Zuma.

Statement issued by the Economic Freedom Fighters, 16 March 2016