Video: Sona chaos – again: EFF members chant ‘Zupta must fall’

The Economic Freedom Fighters’ (EFF) popular chant of “pay back the money” was replaced with “Zupta must fall” as the rowdy parliamentarians, in their trademark red overalls, were ordered to leave the National Assembly yesterday.

EFF leader Julius Malema led his MPs in the chanting after they were told to leave the chamber – by National Council of Provinces chairperson Thandi Modise – for continuously disrupting President Jacob Zuma, resulting in his state of the nation address being delayed by over an hour.

Modise was co-chairing the joint seating of both houses of parliament, alongside National Assembly speaker Baleka Mbete. Zuma finally managed to speak a few minutes after 8pm, having first taken the podium at 7pm.

But not before Malema laid into him. “Zuma is no longer a president that deserves respect from anyone. He has stolen from us. He has collapsed the economy of South Africa. He has made this country a joke and after that he has laughed at us.

“We cannot allow Zupta to do as he pleases in this country. We are not going to allow that. We are doing what we are doing because we don’t recognise as our president. He is not our president,” said Malema.

A few minutes before that COPE leader Terror Lekota had led his own MPs out of parliament – arguing he would not listen to Zuma as he was not fit to be president.

Mbete had her hands full trying to maintain order in the house as EFF MPs incessantly raised points of order – in a clear attempt to disrupt Zuma’s speech.

But Mbete not only attracted the displeasure of the EFF as the DA and Freedom Front Plus also sided with Malema’s MPs – but only on the point of the wrong implementation of parliamentary rules.

This was after she had ruled she would not allow MPs to raise points of order during the joint sitting.

But DA chief whip John Steenhuisen called on her to apply the rules equally, accusing her of making up rules.

“If you expect us to abide by the rules, then you must too,” he said.

As promised, EFF sought to raise the issue of the unceremonious axing of Nhlanhla Nene as finance minister, with Godrich Gardee questioning Zuma on the billions lost in the Johannesburg Stock Exchange as a result of the move.

Nene who was fired in December last year, resigned as an MP. Yesterday, his seat, alongside Minister in the Presidency Jeff Radebe remained empty.

As if Zuma expected his address to be disrupted, by the EFF, his speech touched on a number of important areas – including the contentious issue of reviewing the current arrangement of having the seat of government and that of the legislature in different cities, Pretoria and Cape Town respectively. The cost, said Zuma, was too much to maintain.

The duplication of housing, cars, officials and other aspects was just too much, Zuma said in a strong speech focused firmly on the economy and austerity measures across government.

He also announced firm cost-cutting measures across the state.

Zuma promised that overseas trips by government officials would be severely curtailed. In future, the size of delegations attending international conferences and events will be drastically reduced.

Budgets for conferences catering and entertainment will be cut, and the big parties after parliamentary budget vote debates will be scrapped.

Zuma asked all provinces, municipalities and state-owned enterprises to join the national government in cost-cutting.

Turning to the controversial proposed nuclear new build programme, Zuma promised that it will only be conducted and financed when the country can afford it – effectively putting the brakes on a controversial process about which red lights were flashing over its exorbitant costs.

He called for all role-players in the South African economy to speak with one voice in the national interest, asking that differences rather be settled domestically.

Zuma furthermore asked the tourism sector to take advantage of the opportunities presented by a weaker rand and relaxed visa measures.

He also opened the door for privatisation of under-performing state enterprises, although he did not use the word “privatisation”. Rather, he said “state-owned enterprises and companies would be rationalised”.

Zuma's comments follow on indications from the national Treasury that they considering selling a stake in Eskom.