DA Chief Whip John Steenhuisen has dismissed claims made by EFF leader Julius Malema that he was accused of rape.
SABC News spoke to Steenhuisen following a Multi-Party Chief Whips’ Forum meeting in which Tuesday’s chaos in the National Assembly was discussed.
Malema reacted to Steenhuisen remarks in which he called EFF Member of Parliament VBS looters, by calling Steehuisen a white racist young man who was accused of rape.
This happened during President Cyril Ramphosa’s oral reply session on Tuesday.
Steenhuisen accused Malema of lying. “Mr Malema made a false accusation in the House yesterday that I have been accused of rape. It is an utter lie. And there was no protection whatsoever from the presiding officers. Mr Malema was allowed to call me a white racist.”
Steenhuisen has also described Tuesday’s chaos as the EFF’s fascist thuggery of the worst kind. “Economic Freedom Fighters are fascists, racist party and have injected the issue of race into the South African parliament. If you don’t say what they agree with, you are racist. If you make points of order that they don’t like, they howl you down and beat you up. This is fascist thuggery of the worst kind and it has no place in the political discourse. Parliament should be a place where words are used as arguments and ability to be able to drive issues. This is not a place for thuggery and violence.”
EFF Chief Whip Floyd Shivambu says his party will not apologise for what transpired in the National Assembly when the DA was called racist. The EFF had reacted after DA Chief Whip John Steenhuisen told EFF MPs that they were VBS looters. EFF leader Julius Malema responded by calling Steenhuisen a racist young man who was accused of rape.
The chaos started after Steenhuisen rose to react to President Cyril Ramaphosa’s remarks against him about his listening abilities. This prompted EFF Member of Parliament Mbuyiseni Ndlozi to object to Steenhuisen speaking saying he was not recognised by House Chairperson Thoko Didiza. SABC news spoke to Shivambu about the EFF’s stance following a multi-party Chief Whip’s forum.
“There is absolutely nothing wrong with the EFF exposing the DA racism. To characterise the Democratic Alliance as racist is the correct thing to do. It is a fact that even members of the DA have been resigning in councils have been exposing the racism of the DA. So it is not racist to characterise the Democratic Alliance and its leaders as racists, so the EFF stands firmly that there is absolutely nothing wrong that we did in Parliament. Everything that we did was within the law and was within the confines of the Parliamentary rules and we stand by what we did there.”
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