EFF Eastern Cape to lay criminal charges after Sopa chaos

The EFF in the Eastern Cape says it will be laying criminal charges following a scuffle with security personnel during premier Oscar Mabuyane’s State of the Province Address (Sopa) in East London on Thursday

Security services had to be called in after the EFF members stormed into the precinct in efforts to raise issues faced by tertiary students.

The students said they had nowhere to sleep after failing to secure accommodation.

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THE PARTY SAYS THEY WERE BARRED FROM RAISING A POINT OF ORDER

Eastern Cape Provincial leader, Zilindile Vena said the house descended into chaos when they were barred from raising these issues by the Speaker of the Legislature, Helen Sauls-August.

“We wanted to raise a point of order, but the speaker ignored us. She wasn’t cooperating, and because of that the house descended into chaos.

During this chaos some of our female members were injured and one had to be rushed to hospital,” he said.

Vena said they were going to lay criminal charges against the speaker and report the matter to the legislature. 

Sauls-August condemned the incident, saying they had to utilise security services as the disruptions posed a threat to the premier.

“The disruption posed a threat  to the premier and shows that members representing EFF do not understand that the Presiding Officer, according to Point of Order -Rule 97(1) has discretion to allow Point of orders. 

Section 4 of the Powers, Privileges & Immunities of Parliaments & Provincial Legislature empowers presiding officers to utilise security services to bring order where disruptions arise… more so where an attack is lodged on Premier,” she said. 

EFF AND STUDENTS REMOVED FROM VENUE

The EFF members, who joined angry students from TVET colleges, and Fort Hare and Walter Sisulu Universities who protested outside the venue were eventually removed.

While delivering the Sopa, Mabuyane said the province has made good progress in investing in education.

“In 1994, the province identified backlogs of 572 schools built of mud and inappropriate material. We completed the construction of 232 mud schools, while more than 200 mud schools were declared unviable and closed.

Between now and 2030, we need an estimated amount of R8 billion every year to bring all schools in our province to a conducive state for teaching and learning,” he said.

In addition to schools, he said they have been working tirelessly over the past 30 years to provide houses and housing subsidies to a large number of people in the province.

“As a result, Eastern Cape households who reside in formal dwellings significantly increased from 48% in 1996 to 83.6% in 2022.

We upgraded 115 informal settlements benefiting 57 000 households in the past five years,” he said.