The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) party leader claimed he had reported to the police of a certain individual “sent by the state to the Cape Town City Hall” on Thursday to assassinate him and that he informed South Africa’s deputy Minister for Police Cassel Mathale about the threats.
The EFF leader stated that he had received “intelligence information” revealing that he was set up to be stabbed by one of the parliamentary security guards during President Cyril Ramaphosa’s State of the Nation address.
Mr Malema voiced out his concern to the media a few minutes after he and all the EFF members of parliament were forcefully bundled out of the National Assembly for causing havoc as they continuously disrupted Ramaphosa’s speech.
Thrown out
According to Mr Malema, those who were behind the plan to kill him expected the EFF to cause disturbances during Ramaphosa’s address and knew that National Assembly Speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula would call security officers to violently kick them out.
Mr Malema, who was seen on stage with a placard along with his EFF colleagues, was grabbed and thrown out.
“When I came here, crime intelligence told me there is a person deployed among the white shirts with a sharp object so that when I get pushed out, I must be stabbed with the sharp object,” said Mr Malema.
EFF MPs were removed from the National Assembly as they raised points of order whenever President Ramaphosa was called upon to deliver his speech.
Money theft scandal
Mr Malema’s main issue was that President Ramaphosa could not deliver his speech after showing no confidence in parliament after he went to court over a report over the theft of money from his Phala Phala farm in Limpopo in 2020.
The independent panel report found that President Ramaphosa may have committed serious violations and breached anti-corruption laws.
Mr Malema described the state as a “dictatorship”, claiming that EFF MPs were removed during Ramaphosa’s speech in order to protect the head of state from being held accountable.
He insisted that Speaker Mapisa-Nqakula did not follow the rules as it was unparliamentary of her to call security to remove members of the EFF from the building.
“Parliament has degenerated, the executive has degenerated, the judiciary has degenerated in the protection of one man,” said Mr Malema.
“When you abandon rules of parliament for emotion this is what happens. She violated every code of the law, and this must be declared unconstitutional.”
