Johannesburg - EFF leader Julius Malema has announced that the party will start a campaign to disrupt President Cyril Ramaphosa’s public engagements on Thursday to force him to step down.
The EFF’s demand follows revelations that the February 2020 theft of R60 million in foreign currency from Ramaphosa’s Phala Phala game farm in Limpopo, which the president is accused of failing to report to the police.
”We gave Ramaphosa a chance, he has dismally failed. We will treat him the same way we have treated (former president Jacob) Zuma. He (Ramaphosa) must leave that office with immediate effect because he has not respected his oath of office,” Malema said.
The EFF has also assembled a legal team led by Tembeka Ngcukaitobi to look into the constitutional provisions to have Ramaphosa made to step aside.
Malema said the EFF would not have allowed Ramaphosa to speak during the Presidency’s budget vote debate on Thursday and demanded instead that his deputy David Mabuza deliver the speech.
”Parliament is not a place of criminals, it’s a place of honourable members,” he said.
The Presidency announced on Tuesday that Mabuza would respond to oral questions relating but not limited to the performance agreements signed by Ramaphosa and members of his executive, as well as steps taken by the government to ensure South Africa’s reduction of carbon footprint while also reducing the occurrence of load shedding.
The Freedom Front Plus reacted angrily to the announcement that Ramaphosa would not be present, saying it was totally unacceptable and demanded that if there was a valid reason for his absence it must be publicly disclosed.
”Ramaphosa is accountable to the South African Parliament. With the budget vote debate, he is essentially asking taxpayers for money for the Presidency, but now he will not be there in person to provide answers to questions by Members of Parliament,” the party said.
The FF+ said it would consider not taking part in the debate if Ramaphosa was not present to fulfil his responsibility towards Parliament, which the party also accused him of undermining.
Malema threatened that “everywhere and anywhere” that the EFF finds or sees Ramaphosa the party will have an opportunity to stop him from speaking in the name of South Africa.
”We call upon all the fighters and the ground forces to start treating Ramaphosa as such. We will start on Thursday and it will be waya-waya (all the time) until he lets go of that office. That office must be occupied by a man of integrity, not a hypocrite, not a man with double personalities,” Malema added.
According to Malema, the EFF in Namibia has taken on the neighbouring country’s President Hage Geingob, after he was accused of helping Ramaphosa apprehend suspects who planned and executed the robbery.
”They are holding him accountable and I am told very soon they are going to open a criminal case against the president of Namibia for violating Namibian laws when it comes to issues of foreign currency and extradition,” he said.
The EFF accused Geingob of conspiring with Ramaphosa to abduct Namibians involved in the robbery.