EFF president Julius Malema says being suspended by what he calls the corrupt Parliament was an honour the party wore with pride.
On Saturday, Malema said he and his organisation were not going to be threatened or intimidated into silence by the corrupt and the leadership that was refusing to be held accountable.
“We can’t be subjected to such tendencies all in the name of salaries, they can take their salaries, they can suspend us as much as they want, we will never move from the truth.
“The EFF’s participation and its input and its law proposals in Parliament are unmatched. Only the EFF is suspended in Parliament, because it does its work.
“I am the only president that can be attacked by civilians who are called bouncers because I do my work,” he added.
Malema said this was not the first time his party was suspended as EFF members were suspended before for telling the truth that the ANC government had murdered people in Marikana, adding that finding was done by the high court.
“Members of Parliament currently characterise Ramaphosa as a money launderer as monies were found in foreign currencies under the mattress and if there’s no practical explanation other than that, then I don’t know.
“We will not allow the ANC to suppress the freedom of expression for Members of Parliament from telling the truth.
“What is exciting about these elections is that the ANC won’t have the majority to continue doing the ‘nonsense’ they are doing because they won’t be using the majority to prevent ministers from taking responsibility.”
Six EFF MPs were suspended from Parliament from February 1 to 29. They were among a group of EFF members who were ordered out of the House by the Speaker for interrupting Ramaphosa’s 2022 speech.
Malema’s party suffered a major blow when a full bench of the high court dismissed the EFF’s application with costs after finding that it was not urgent.
The judges also noted that the EFF’s application, along with its failure to adhere to certain timeframes, constituted an “abuse of process”.
At the time, Judge Kate Savage stated in her judgment: “The urgency was occasioned by the applicants’ abject failure to comply with their obligations in terms of the orders which were granted at their instance.”
The EFF had approached the court in a last-ditch effort to challenge the National Assembly’s adoption of a report by the powers and privileges committee, which recommended the suspension as punishment for disrupting last year’s Sona by storming the stage while Ramaphosa was addressing the joint sitting of the houses of Parliament.
The Star