EFF sound warning to DA in parliamentary dissolution motion debate

The EFF has issued a strong rebuke to the DA‚ warning it to stop taking their partnership in three key metro municipalities for granted.

EFF deputy president and chief whip Floyd Shivambu sounded the warning in the National Assembly on Tuesday during a debate on the DA's motion calling for the dissolution of Parliament and for early elections to be held.

The DA lost the debate after 229 MPs voted against its motion while only 83 supported it and seven abstained.

There have been tensions between the DA and the EFF following the removal of Nelson Mandela Bay deputy mayor Mongameli Bobani and in other key metro municipalities such as Tshwane and Johannesburg in Gauteng.

The DA governs the three municipalities through the support of the EFF and other smaller parties such as the UDM‚ and Julius Malema at the weekend rejected an invitation from the DA for the parties to iron out their differences.

Speaking in the National Assembly‚ Shivambu said the EFF rejected the motion for the disbandment of Parliament and asked the DA to stop acting like a "super political party".

He said the DA tabled the motion out of the blue‚ without consulting other opposition parties and had made "tactical blunders" in the run-up to last month's motion of no confidence in the leadership of President Jacob Zuma.

"The DA must not take advantage of the mercy that we've given them‚ they must not take the vote that we have given them in municipalities for granted. They must not take the fact that we allow you to lead critical motions for granted.

“Don't undermine us‚ don't undermine the other political parties because you are not going to anyway‚" said Shivambu.

"With which power do you dissolve Parliament‚ who gave you the mandate to dissolve parliament?. So the DA is cautioned officially: don't engage in self-destructive activities and programmes.

"You stand a reasonable chance when they are self-destructing (the ANC) to be part of national government in 2019 onwards‚ but if you continue on this path of self-destruction‚ of wanting to exist as if you are some super political party‚ you are going to offend people who otherwise were going to give you the responsibility to lead society."

Several parties argued that the Independent Electoral Commission was not ready to hold early elections.

The ANC's Richard Mdakane said the DA was attempting to usurp his party's majority through technicalities.

"We must never baseless motions by political parties that use all sort of tricks to undermine the will of the majority‚ this is what it's about. Enjoy your 22%‚ don't undermine our majority‚" he said.

DA Chief Whip John Steenhuisen‚ who sponsored the motion‚ said Parliament should be dissolved because it has failed to hold Zuma accountable.

"A President who has sold his country to foreigners who stripped the country not only of its money and resources‚ but who have snatched away opportunity from the hands of the poor and most vulnerable in our society. The mother whose sheer desperation forces her to feed her children on grass and sugar water. Madness!

“All this whilst the President and his family have gotten richer - obscenely richer. The President of the Republic has sacrificed the future of our nation’s children on the altar of the Guptas only to selfishly secure his own future. Madness!"

- TimesLIVE