EFF refuses to join Zuma question session, says he is a 'Gupta stooge'

The EFF will not participate in the question-and-answer session with President Jacob Zuma on Thursday, the party has said.

"We see no value in engaging a man who has no honour, who lies and who is a stooge of the Gupta family," spokesperson Mbuyiseni Ndlozi said on Wednesday.

President Jacob Zuma will answer questions in the National Assembly on Thursday.

Opposition parties have questioned the president's decision to remove former finance minister Nhlanhla Nene from his post.

Ndlozi said the party believed that Zuma should not be afforded the respect and courtesy deserving of a president because he did not respect his oath of office, including the calling of his office.

The party said, despite evidence, Zuma did not see anything wrong with his decision to remove Nene from his post.

The EFF said Zuma and the ANC accounted to 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.

"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," Ndlozi said.

The party advised Zuma to resign.

On Monday, former ANC MP Vytjie Mentor alleged that she had been offered a Cabinet position by the Gupta family, while Zuma sat in a room next door.

Mentor dropped the Facebook bombshell in response to Democratic Alliance member Johann Abrie's post on Monday about the Guptas offering Deputy Finance Minister Mcebisi Jonas the job of finance minister before Nene was removed.

She wrote: "But they had previously asked me to become Minister of Public Enterprises when Barbara Hogan got the chop, provided that I would drop the SAA flight-route to India and give it to them. I refused and so I was never made a Minister. The President was in another room when they offered me this in Saxonworld. [sic]"

In response, Zuma claims to have "no recollection of Ms Mentor and is not aware of the alleged incidents in her career".

Source: News 24