Every time Zuma turns a page we are going to speak: Malema on Sona

05 February 2016 - 16:38 By Lizeka Tandwa
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EFF leader Julius Malema in the National Assembly during a debate on President Jacob Zuma's state of the nation address in Parliament
EFF leader Julius Malema in the National Assembly during a debate on President Jacob Zuma's state of the nation address in Parliament
Image: Gallo Images / Nardus Engelbrecht

The EFF will not stay quiet during President Jacob Zuma’s State of the Nation Address, party leader Julius Malema said on Friday.

“Instead of just leaving him alone, we are going to share that time with him. It will be he and the EFF giving the State of the Nation Address that day," Malema told reporters in Benoni at the EFF's annual plenum.

He said in the past, MPs had always remained quiet for “respectable presidents”.

“He has ceased to be that thing. Every time he turns a page we are going to speak. When he goes to the next page, we will speak. If he speaks for 25 minutes there will be an additional 25 minutes for the EFF."

This year, the party wanted to know why Zuma fired Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene.

Zuma will deliver his speech on Thursday. 

Malema said Zuma no longer deserved the respect due to presidents who respected their office and the public purse.

During last year’s speech, EFF MPs raised points of order to ask when Zuma would “pay back the money” spent on renovations to his Nkandla homestead. They were eventually thrown out of the National Assembly.

Zuma axed Nene in December, replacing him with relatively unknown ANC member and former Merafong mayor David van Rooyen. Following public outrage and the rand falling to new lows against the dollar, Zuma replaced Van Rooyen with Pravin Gordhan.

Source: News24

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