Lungani Zungu
Three EFF MPs were forcibly ejected from Parliament on Tuesday after delaying President Cyril Ramaphosa’s address to MPs.
It took nearly an hour for President Cyril Ramaphosa to finally address the room as successive disruptive points of order kept delaying proceedings, largely from EFF MPs.
Ramaphosa was expected to address the MPs attending the hybrid session at 2pm but ended up speaking nearly an hour later.
The red berets continued to disrupt the session even when Ramaphosa had begun speaking, leading to the forcible ejection of three party MPs from the session.
EFF MPs Nazier Paulsen, Khanya Ceza and Veronica Mente were all thrown out of the house for different offences.
“You are worse than (former speaker) Baleka Mbete. You are biased,” EFF MP Hlengiwe Mkhaliphi said to Speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula.
As expected, the virtual session got off to a bumpy start when EFF leader Julius Malema, his deputy Floyd Shivambu and party MPs objected to the session being held virtually.
They wanted the session to be postponed to a later date when it could be held physically.
Malema accused Mapisa-Nqakula of holding the session virtually so it would be easier for her to protect Ramaphosa from the tough questions that MPs had for him.
Ramaphosa faced questions ranging from the Phala Phala scandal to gender-based violence and the energy crisis in South Africa.
