Julius Malema on the EFF's Plans to Disrupt SONA: We Have No Regard for Zuma
Julius Malema, EFF leader and the subject of Floyd Shivambu and Janet Smith’s
The Coming Revolution: Julius Malema and the Fight for Economic Freedom, was recently interviewed by Lebogang Seale for The Star about the Economic Freedom Fighters’ intention to hold the president to account during the State of the Nation Address next month.
In the interview, Seale asks Malema about the wisdom of blurring the distinction between parliament and the State of the Nation Address. The former is supposed to be a forum for healthy political debate, and the latter is not.
Malema says that President Jacob Zuma has made it necessary by avoiding parliament. Furthermore, he says the EFF “don’t believe Zuma or everything that he says for that matter”, adding “we have no regard for him, he is a criminal of note”.
Read the interview:
LEBOGANG SEALE (LS): You have said that you will persist with your plans to ask questions related to the Nkandlagate report during the State of the Nation Address (SONA). This is despite President Jacob Zuma’s office saying he would avail himself to answer questions in Parliament on March 11. Surely there has to be a distinction between SONA and a question-and-answer session, Mr Malema?
JULIUS MALEMA (JM): We can’t wait until March because the president won’t come. He is not a man who honours his word. What if we see him again in 2016, during the SONA? We would have failed in our responsibilities as parliamentarians to hold the president to account.
LS: The ANC has said it is because of your disruptive behaviour that the president hasn’t availed himself to Parliament.
JM: It’s the very same Parliament that the president avoided, that he now wants to come back to because it’s SONA time and he can’t be engaged. He just wants a one-man show, and if it’s not his show, he won’t come… We have an appointment with Jacob Zuma on February 12.
Book details
- The Coming Revolution: Julius Malema and the Fight for Economic Freedom edited by Floyd Shivambu, Janet Smith
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EAN: 9781431410378
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