EFF stands firm on suspension threat

ECONOMIC Freedom Fighters MPs will have to wait another day to know if National Assembly Speaker Baleka Mbete will back down on her threat to dock their salaries.

She ordered the punishment after the MPs chanted, "Pay back the money" at President Jacob Zuma and disrupted parliament.

They had given Mbete until noon yesterday to retract her ruling.

Mbete wrote to the 25 MPs, including party leader Julius Malema on Tuesday, and informed them that she planned to ask parliament to suspend them for 14 days without pay. She gave them until Friday to provide written reasons why they should not go ahead.

This followed the EFF demanding that Zuma tell parliament the date on which he would pay back part of the money spent at Nkandla as recommended by public protector Thuli Madonsela.

EFF MPs wrote back to Mbete, dismissing her allegations.

They also gave her an ultimatum to halt the suspensions by yesterday or face a court case.

But Leon Manuel, of the office of the state attorney, informed Malema's lawyer, Luvuyo Godla, that Mbete could not respond yesterday.

"Our instruction is that the speaker will respond during the course of tomorrow [Monday]," Manuel said.

Godla signalled the party may approach the court today .

Political analyst Somadoda Fikeni said: "To some extent the litigation is good but you don't want to have the judiciary burdened with things that parliament could have easily dealt with.

"It is good because the court will be able to clarify some unclear parliamentary codes of conduct." - Philani Nombembe