EFF's Malema disrupts Ramaphosa's state of the nation address

Disruptions erupted in the city hall in Cape Town where President Cyril Ramaphosa attempted to deliver his state of the nation address (Sona) on Thursday. 

Ramaphosa had just started talking and had barely made it through the first sentence when EFF leader Julius Malema rose on a point of order. 

“Speaker of the National Assembly ...”  was all Ramaphosa managed to say when Malema rose and asked that the speaker,  Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, order Ramaphosa to sit down while he addressed the house. 

“In terms of procedure, the president must sit down,” said Malema.

Malema called for Mapisa-Nqakula to close proceedings, saying, “How can he convene the people he has taken to court? He has taken this parliament to court, meaning he has no confidence in his parliament.

“If he wins this case, it means this body has acted unlawfully against him,” Malema said. 

It had been expected that Ramaphosa would face some resistance from opposition parties, many of whom have delivered their own “state of the nation addresses” in past days, saying they required realistic solutions to the crisis facing the country, particularly around load-shedding. 

Ramaphosa has taken the Section 89 panel’s report on review at the Constitutional Court. He had lodged an application to review and set aside the findings of Section 89 independent panel which found that he has a case to answer on the Phala Phala farm scandal. 

Meanwhile, Ramaphosa's Sona address is expected to address the economic recovery plans in place as well as what is being done to resolve rampant unemployment. 

Mapisa-Nqakula had started proceedings by reminding MPs that the rules of engagement did not allow MPs to interrupt the president's speech and could only raise points with the permission of the speaker. 

She read the MPs the riot act, saying, “spurious points of order are out of order”.

LISTEN | Sona suspended briefly after EFF refuses to go without a fight

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