Johannesburg – The EFF is planning to disrupt the State of the Nation Address, insisting that the National Assembly should debate the motion of no confidence against President Jacob Zuma on Thursday. 

“[There will be] no State of the Nation Address – it’s [going to be a] motion of no confidence,” EFF leader Julius Malema said.

Malema told the media that the party did not need Speaker Baleka Mbete’s permission to debate the motion.

“There will be no State of the Nation, it’s the motion of no confidence debate on Thursday… We don’t need the Speaker to give us permission to debate the motion of no confidence. We have given her an opportunity and she failed,” he said. 

Malema said, among its planned actions against Zuma, they were considering approaching the courts to interdict Zuma from addressing the nation.

Also read: EFF calls for secret ballot in motion of no confidence on Zuma

The party was only waiting for the ANC to confirm if it had asked Zuma to resign, and this would clear the way for the EFF to head to court, he warned.

“Zuma can’t tell us the future because he is leaving and that is guaranteed. The only thing is when,” he said.

He questioned why Parliament would spend over R4m on the State of the Nation Address that no one wanted to listen to. 

“… No sober, normal person is going to listen to Zuma.”

On Sunday, the ANC’s top six met with Zuma in what was seen as its final attempt to get him to voluntarily resign before Thursday.  

‘Listen to this tribalist’

Shortly after the top six meeting, Malema tweeted that Zuma had refused to step down. The party was holding an urgent national working committee (NWC) meeting at its headquarters on Monday afternoon.

During the media briefing, Malema said that Zuma was not scared of being impeached.

He said that Zuma had warned the top six that if they forced him out, the ANC would lose its traditional base in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng.

“Listen to this tribalist… [He said] they will lose KZN and they will lose Gauteng because the Zulus in Gauteng are going to be extremely offended by my removal, so I’m not going anywhere, I’m staying.” 

Malema called on the ANC to allow the EFF to deal with Zuma during the debate.

“All we are asking from the ANC is that [they] bring this guy to us,” adding that this was because the ANC had failed to deal with him.

The EFF have also called for the motion of no confidence to be conducted through a secret ballot. In his letter to Mbete, Malema said the Constitutional Court had made it clear that one of the dangers from which MPs needed to be protected was “undue influence, intimidation, or fear of disapproval by others”, News24 reported.