EFF boycotts Ramaphosa Q & A

The EFF boycotted President Cyril Ramaphosa's question and answer session in parliament, saying participating would legitimise a “constitutional delinquent”.

Ramaphosa was on Thursday engaged in his first Q&A session with MPs this year.

The question paper shows EFF leader Julius Malema wanted Ramaphosa to explain if he still has confidence in police minister Bheki Cele amid rising crime.

However, minutes before the session started, the EFF announced it would boycott.

“It would be tantamount to legitimising corruption and the violation of our constitution to give Ramaphosa an audience,” the EFF said.

The party walked out of Ramaphosa’s state of the nation address in February because he took the section 89 panel's report, which found he may have a case to answer regarding the Phala Phala saga, for review in the Constitutional Court.

“Since Ramaphosa’s empty and directionless state of the nation address he has been exposed as being part and parcel of massive tax evasion through keeping $580,000, which were smuggled into South Africa and onto his Phala Phala farm without any declaration to the SA Revenue Service or the South African Reserve Bank,” the EFF said.

“The party believes Ramaphosa has no capacity and lacks competence to resolve any of the crises confronting South Africa while remaining persistent in his attempts to avoid accountability and transparency, to the point of taking parliament to court regarding his [alleged] crimes at Phala Phala farm.”

TimesLIVE

Support independent journalism by subscribing to the Sunday Times. Just R20 for the first month.