Parliament - A defiant President Jacob Zuma made it clear he is going nowhere and ignored questions about his fitness for office in his reply on Thursday to the bruising debate on the presidency budget, leaving the ANC with a major electoral headache in the upcoming local government polls.
Brushing off opposition arguments that he was now effectively accused in a criminal prosecution.
This in light of a High Court ruling last week that he should face the corruption charges controversially dropped in 2009, Zuma went on the attack.
He warned that Parliament should be brought to order “for the dignity of the country”.
He said he didn’t think it important to respond to those who hadn’t discussed his budget.
“I also responded to those who conducted themselves very well.
“If your members have no respect, it’s going to be difficult to respect them, or their contributions,” Zuma said.
He was referring to DA leader Mmusi Maimane’s description of him as the “looter-in-chief” and “accused No 1”, and EFF attempts to prevent him delivering his budget speech on Wednesday.
Read more: Parliament a national embarrassment, says Zuma
Amid growing calls from inside and outside the ANC for him to step aside or be recalled and an embarrassing manifesto launch in Port Elizabeth, Zuma and the party appear intent on riding out the storm.
Veering off the script at the end of his speech, Zuma appeared to rebuke Speaker Baleka Mbete for allowing the attacks on him, despite prefacing his remarks by saying he was “happy that you were able to handle the House”. He said more had to be done to “bring this House into order”.
“I go around Africa and people ask me very embarrassing questions about this Parliament,” Zuma said, addressing a National Assembly in which opposition benches were largely empty.
Opposition leaders had announced before Zuma’s reply they would be boycotting it because they didn’t wish to lend legitimacy to “an utterly discredited and illegitimate president”.
Zuma said “people” in southern Africa were beginning to question the standing of this country as an example of constitutional democracy and were complaining that youth in their countries were beginning to “imitate” the behaviour seen in Parliament.
Even South Africans would stop respecting the laws passed by Parliament if MPs continued to behave as they did, Zuma said.
Also read: Zuma condemns torching of #Vuwani schools
He agreed with ANC chief whip Jackson Mthembu, who had warned the EFF about the remarks of its leader, Julius Malema, that the party would remove the ANC by violent means if necessary.
Mthembu said on Wednesday the EFF might suffer the same fate as the Boeremag members who had plotted to overthrow the government and landed in jail for their trouble.
Zuma started by condemning the burning of 17 schools in the Vhuwani area of Limpopo, saying no grievance could justify the destruction and called for an investigation into “rumours” that hidden motives were behind the protests.
“The honourable chief whip of the majority party sounded a serious warning to those who toy around with causing instability in the republic,” Zuma said.
“They will not be allowed to succeed. Let us not play around with the security of the state, our country and our people.”
He also accused “those with dominant control over the means of communication” of “running negative campaigns against our country”, but said the people knew “their country is a success story, because they can see the changes that have come into being since 1994”.
“The long shadow of apartheid is gradually receding. Despair has been replaced by hope, deprivation by opportunity, and exclusion by inclusion,” Zuma said.
Political Bureau