Jacob Zuma plays the injury card
The president appeals to MPs who interrupted his state of the nation address to use ‘democratic mechanisms’ instead of chaos and not treat Parliament like a beer hall
President Jacob Zuma hit out at opposition MPs for “traumatising” the nation and treating Parliament like a beer hall during their disruption of his state of the nation address last week. Responding to the debate on the state of the nation address on Thursday, Zuma referred to last week’s pandemonium in Parliament and appealed to MPs to use “democratic mechanisms” instead of “using chaos”. Last Thursday, he was subjected to a barrage of insults and attacks by opposition parties, particularly the EFF, which delayed his speech for more than an hour, labelling him illegitimate and a thief who had broken his oath of office. “Some MPs have decided to treat this house like something worse than a beer hall. The conduct we saw here traumatised millions ... including a 12-year-old imbongi [praise singer],” said Zuma, amid heckling by some in the opposition. DA MPs were heard shouting “like you treat the Constitution” after Zuma said some members treated Parliament like a beer hall. In his re...
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