'Me worry? Not a chance'

''I have never been nervous in my life," President Jacob Zuma declared yesterday.

But the Economic Freedom Fighters are expected to disrupt the president's nationally televised State of the Nation speech on Thursday, attacking him on the Nkandla scandal and other subjects.

Zuma said parliament would have to deal with the threatened chaos and apply the rules.

The EFF disrupted Zuma's question-and-answer session on August 20, demanding that he ''pay back the money" - a reference to expenditure by the state of millions of rands on features unrelated to security at his private homestead. The EFF call was in line with a recommendation by Public Protector Thuli Madonsela.

About R246-million in public money was spent on ''security upgrades" at Nkandla - but it later emerged that they included a swimming pool, cattle kraal and visitor's amphitheatre.

Zuma has not returned to parliament to answer questions since the EFF MPs' protest.

Speaking to editors in Pretoria yesterday, a relaxed Zuma said he could not predict what would happen on Thursday night.

''Parliament operates by the rules and the Speaker will decide what is acceptable. I will play by the rules," he said.

He said calls that he should repay Nkandla money before the parliamentary investigation was concluded "lacked logic".

Zuma said he was paying a bond on the property and the controversy was being milked for political gain .

He castigated EFF members for appearing in parliament in domestic workers' clothes and red overalls.

Zuma said the EFF's attire ''degraded" the people it claimed to represent and evoked a painful past.

''That is why at weekends they don their best attire ... they remove those clothes."

Zuma said the government would have to find a solution to the Malamulele upheavals in Limpopo last week that would not give rise to tribalism.

On Lesotho, where there has been political tension in recent weeks, he said officials will today meet Lesotho political leaders ahead of national elections later this month.

Zuma would not elaborate on the investigation of the National Prosecuting Authority, or the standoff between Hawks boss Anwa Dramat and Police Minister Nkosinathi Nhleko.

A judge last week overturned Nhleko's suspension of Dramat.

The president said the energy crisis would feature in his State of the Nation speech. He said the government was taking responsibility for the energy constraints and was building giant power stations.