President Jacob Zuma’s question and answer session in the National Assembly was disrupted before it even began on Thursday, with the EFF insisting on asking when he was going to pay back the money for security upgrades to his Nkandla home.

National Assembly Speaker Baleka Mbete had to suspend proceedings in order to have an urgent meeting with the parties’ chief whips outside the chamber after the house descended into a screaming match.

This was sparked by Economic Freedom Fighters MP Makoti Khawula, who questioned why there was nothing on the question paper about Nkandla.

The red berets wanted to know when Zuma would pay back the money.

Point of order

EFF MP Mbuyiseni Ndlozi rose on a point of order but Mbete would not recognise him.

“The president has rendered our Parliament useless…” Ndlozi continued.

“Last time the president was here [in the National Assembly] he made a mockery of… the process of asking about Nkandla.

“He doesn’t take this Parliament seriously, he doesn’t take his mandate seriously… the other side [the ANC] laugh as if we are in some Trevor Noah show here,” he continued.

Mbete kept insisting that she would not recognise Ndlozi.

She asked EFF chief whip Floyd Shivambu to keep his MPs in order.

“What kind of order is that?” she asked Shivambu.

“I’m not going to allow you people from the EFF to have this kind of disruption.”

Shivambu insisted that the EFF wanted clarity from Zuma on the Nkandla matter.

‘I will never sit down!’

ANC chief whip Stone Sizani then rose on a point of order prompting EFF leader Julius Malema to stand up in protest.

He insisted that Mbete recognise Ndlozi before Sizani.

Mbete called on Malema to sit down but the firebrand leader refused.

“I will never sit down,” he shouted.

“I will not take instructions from you. There is nothing special about you,” he yelled at Sizani. News24