Sona no-go for EFF leader Julius Malema and five others after high court bid fails

Beyond deadline, late and voluminous court papers had the Western Cape High Court on Tuesday strike off the roll the EFF’s challenge of their six members’ suspension, alongside a review of parliamentary rules and the Powers, Privileges and Immunities of Parliament and Provincial Legislatures Act. The consequence? In place remains Parliament’s finding and sanction of contempt for disrupting the 2023 State of the Nation Address (Sona) when EFF leader Julius Malema and the other walked onto the stage with posters on the presidential Phala Phala debacle.

Read more in Daily Maverick: The first 45 minutes — High drama as EFF members booted out after trying to storm the City Hall stage

Judge Nathan Erasmus of the full bench ruled, “By allowing litigants to ignore court orders that they have agreed to and without proper explanation, will bring justice into disrepute. I am mindful of this matter and that the applicants might not get the relief before the next State of the Nation Address or budget speech. But this is of their own making...,” according to News24.

Parliament in a statement welcomed the court decision, “The suspensions of the six EFF members are effective from Thursday, 1 February to 29 February”.

For Parliament, not having Malema and the others in the House for the 2024 Sona would be a welcome relief and boost expectations of smoother proceedings. The EFF has repeatedly disrupted President Cyril Ramaphosa in the wake of the 2020 Phala Phala scandal following public disclosure of the theft of the US dollars stuffed into a sofa on the presidential game farm.

Read more in Daily Maverick: Ramaphosa’s Farmgate scandal – a timeline of what we know (and don’t know) so far

For the EFF it’s a blow that its leaders are suspended from Parliament in February. It’s a high-profile, busy month when the Sona opens the political calendar and the Budget closes the cycle of key government announcements from politics to economics.

“Parliament is the highest stage of peaceful protest and the ANC must never turn our democratic Parliament into a weapon in defence of a money laundering Cyril Ramaphosa!” the EFF posted on X coinciding with Tuesday’s court proceedings.

Economic Freedom Fighters leader Julius Malema is forcibly removed from City Hall where his party disrupted the State of the Nation Address on 9 February, 2022. (Photo: Shelley Christians)

On 5 December, the House voted 264 for and 30 against to adopt the powers and privileges recommendation to suspend without salary in February Malema, his deputy Floyd Shivambu, EFF secretary-general Marshall Dlamini and EFF MPs Sinawo Tambo, Vuyani Pambo, and Mbuyiseni Ndlozi. They must also apologise in the House.

Not yet finalised are the parliamentary powers and privileges proceedings against 10 EFF MPs for disrupting Ramaphosa’s Budget vote speech on 10 June 2022. Those contempt proceedings which started earlier in January include, Natasha Ntlangwini, Anthony Matumba, Tseko Mafanya, Babalwa Mathulelwa, Paulnita Marais, Naledi Chirwa, Sinawo Tambo, Mothusi Montwedi, Yoliswa Yako and Constance Mkhonto.

But done and dusted is ANC MP Dipuo Peters’ suspension for the whole first parliamentary term, the penalty imposed after Parliament’s joint ethics committee in October 2023 found her guilty of State Capture-related actions, including sacking the Prasa (Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa) and failing to timeously appoint a Prasa CEO.

Read more in Daly Maverick: Ethics committee recommends sanction against ex-transport minister Dipuo Peters over Prasa debacle 

“The Member failed to act on all occasions in accordance with the public trust placed in her, and discharge her obligations, in terms of the Constitution, to Parliament and the public at large,” the joint ethics committee found on the complaint brought by #UniteBehind and its leader, activist Zackie Achmat.

On Monday, Peters’s court bid to set aside the sanctions failed. Parliament in a statement welcomed this.

“We appreciate the court’s sentiments regarding the importance of allowing Parliament, as an arm of state, to regulate its business without interference from other arms of the state... Ms Peters will be placed on suspension commencing...30 January, with the suspension expected to last until 28 March.”

Like Malema and the five EFF MPs, Peters will miss Sona.

Peters’s fellow ANC MP Mosebenzi Zwane, implicated in State Capture while mineral resources minister, was on Tuesday found guilty by the powers and privileges committee for failing to apologise in the House as ordered by Parliament’s joint ethics committee. This after he was suspended from the House for having negotiated the Gupta-linked Tegeta coal mine acquisition and fined five days’ salary for not having disclosed travel benefits paid for by the Guptas. The apology was for the ministerial statement he issued on approaching banks regarding their closing of Gutpa accounts that was found to have violated public trust and brought Parliament and Cabinet into disrepute.

Read more in Daily Maverick: Joint ethics committee throws the book at Mosebenzi Zwane over Gupta links, travel and coal mine

Zwane on 2 May 2023 was not in the House as instructed to deliver his apology, and again not in early September 2023.

On Tuesday he told the powers and privileges committee of flight delays and a family medical emergency that prevented him from making those dates. MPs didn’t buy this, including those of the governing ANC which indicates Zwane’s failing standing in the party.

The powers and privileges committee recommended Zwane be suspended from the House in March and docked a month’s salary. The sanction must now be adopted by the House. DM

UPDATE:  The EFF has filed its court papers afresh, and the challenge to set aside the suspension of Malema and the others is set down for Tuesday in the Western Cape High Court, or two days before Sona.