PARLIAMENT – Democratic Alliance leader Mmusi Maimane was forced to withdraw a reference in Parliament to President Jacob Zuma as an “accused criminal”, as the party hammered the point that the North Gauteng High Court held that he should face criminal charges and the ANC rushed to his defence.
Maimane in his speech in the presidency’s budget debate, variously called Zuma a thief, the ANC’s “looter in chief” and the main beneficiary of South Africa’s 1990s arms acquisition programme, from which the 783 criminal charges in question in that judgment stem.
[SPEECH] This man is a thief #AccusedNumber1 – @MmusiMaimane https://t.co/7WRQcqU2Gt pic.twitter.com/m1yBuVeLiF
— Democratic Alliance (@Our_DA) May 4, 2016
Deputy Speaker Lechesa Tsenoli immediately told him it was unparliamentary to call the president a criminal.
“The president has not been found guilty of those charges. Honourable Maimane you cannot call somebody a criminal who has not been convicted,” Tsenoli said.
“The rules require of you to make any such allegation against any member, including the president, in a substantive motion. If you cannot do that, withdraw that please.”
DA chief whip John Steenhuisen rose to say Tsenoli was infringing on free speech by not allowing Maimane parliamentary privilege but Tsenoli would not be swayed. He told the DA to respect the ruling and challenge it later if they chose.
Cartoonists can say it, but MPs can't. So much for parliamentary privilege. #AccusedNumber1 pic.twitter.com/gPqK1GKJ6A
— Gavin Davis (@gavdavis) May 4, 2016
Maimane replied: “We will challenge, I withdraw,” and resumed his speech.
“And when we vote on the budget, the people of this country will see, once again, that Mr Zuma and today’s ANC are one and the same. They will see, once again, how far this once mighty liberation movement has fallen. They will see how the ANC protects its looter-in-chief. And make no mistake, this man stole from all of us.”
We cannot support a Presidency budget when that president refuses to take responsibility for his actions. – @MmusiMaimane #AccusedNumber1
— Democratic Alliance (@Our_DA) May 4, 2016
Tsenoli again objected, and so did ANC chief whip Jackson Mthembu.
Mthembu said: “As we sit here President Zuma is not accused… He has not been found by any court anywhere to have looted anything at all. We can’t be sitting in this house and insulting the president of the republic.”
The opposition protest, which earlier saw the Economic Freedom Fighters thrown out of the chamber, overshadowed Zuma’s speech in which he listed government achievements and priorities.
Steenhuisen rose numerous time to say the DA was merely referencing court rulings against Zuma, leading to a heated debate across the floor as to whether last Friday’s court ruling had effectively reinstated the charges that dogged Zuma to the steps of the presidency.
The #ConCourt judgment handed down in Jan2015, called it “fair comment” to say Jacob Zuma stole your money – @MmusiMaimane #PresidencyBudget
— Democratic Alliance (@Our_DA) May 4, 2016
The court ruled that the decision by the National Prosecuting Authority to withdraw the charges shortly before the 2009 national elections had been irrational and that Zuma should face the charges of fraud, racketeering and corruption. The implications of the judgment remain moot, but the DA and academics say that short of appealing the judgment, the NPA must now indict the president.
“In his judgment on Friday, Judge Ledwaba said that … the NPA Head at the time, Mokotedi Mpshe, had ‘ignored the importance of his oath of office’ in withdrawing the charges, and that his decision was irrational. He also said that Mpshe found himself ‘under pressure’ to discontinue the prosecution against Mr Zuma,” Maimane said.
“Under pressure from whom exactly? I think we all know the answer.”
He concluded his speech with a final “the president is a thief”.
We cant support a Presidency budget that spent R45m of public money on legal fees since 2009 to fight Zuma’s court battles. #AccusedNumber1
— Democratic Alliance (@Our_DA) May 4, 2016
Mthembu rose: “We will say the obvious as a point of order that the leader of the opposition had insulted the president and he must withdraw.”
The Inkatha Freedom Party’s Narend Singh was up next to object that debating time was being wasted and that it was “extremely offensive” of Maimane to call Zuma a thief. Tsenoli ruled that the remark would be investigated.
Earlier, the Economic Freedom Fighters were thrown out of the chamber by Speaker Baleka Mbete for trying to prevent Zuma from speaking.
EFF deputy leader Floyd Shivambu said the party would not let Zuma address the legislature because he had been found by the Constitutional Court in March to have flouted the law by failing to heed the Public Protector’s directive that he repay funds misspent on his private home in the Nkandla scandal.
#AccusedNumber1 pic.twitter.com/oGuUhQMLoV
— Athol Trollip (@AtholT) May 4, 2016
– Africa News Agency
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