JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA FEBRUARY 14: Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) leader Julius Malema speaks during a media briefing at the partys headquarters on February 14, 2017 in Johannesburg, South Africa. Malema announced that the party’s Members of Parliament will not participate in the debate of President Jacob Zuma’s State of the Nation Address on Tuesday and Wednesday.
(Photo by Gallo Images / Sowetan / Simphiwe Nkwali)
JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA FEBRUARY 14: Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) leader Julius Malema speaks during a media briefing at the partys headquarters on February 14, 2017 in Johannesburg, South Africa. Malema announced that the party’s Members of Parliament will not participate in the debate of President Jacob Zuma’s State of the Nation Address on Tuesday and Wednesday.
(Photo by Gallo Images / Sowetan / Simphiwe Nkwali)
Malema isn’t afraid to call out idiocracy and is willing to bend one of his strongest principles as EFF leader to belittle Jacob Zuma.
Outspoken as ever, Malema had many axes to grind: Fearing that speaker Baleka Mbete won’t ensure that the vote of no confidence against Zuma is held via a secret ballot, he threatened to serve her court papers and interdict her as the decision is announced:
“The papers are ready. When she gives that letter, we will not even read the whole thing, but just the conclusion. Once she says ‘open vote’, we are serving her.”
“She has to give rational reasons. Failure to do that, and we will take her to court. We know she is unreasonable. They run the state like a mafia state. We will have two people all over, to serve her with the papers, to interdict her”
When is the vote of no confidence against Jacob Zuma?
In June, the constitutional court ruled that Mbete must hold the vote and decide whether the ballot is held in secret or if MP’s votes are to be made public.
The vote will be held on Tuesday 8th August. Parliament is currently in recess and does not reconvene until Tuesday 1st August.
Read: Zuma boasts about the seven other votes of no confidence he’s survived
This is Zuma’s eighth – yes, really – vote of no confidence in as many years, and this is arguably the most pressure he’s ever faced, with ex-JZ loyalists and pro-Zuma organisations withdrawing their support for him.
Julius Malema on Jacob Zuma
The EFF currently employ a strategy of walking out of Parliament when Zuma is speaking, a gesture which symbolises their refusal to acknowledge him as the president – but now, Malema is thinking of ending the boycott for an incredible reason:
“We have been thinking that his next appearance, we must go and attend to him, just to put him in his place. Not because we recognise him, but just to remind him that he is not all that”
That’s right. Malema and co will only entertain Zuma if they can openly roast him. This is politics in 2017, everyone. Might as well embrace it.
