Members of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) during a parliamentary session, where they announced their boycott of President Cyril Ramaphosa's Budget Vote 1 reply, citing concerns over constitutional accountability.
The Economic Freedom Fighters announced on Wednesday that its parliamentary caucus would boycott President Cyril Ramaphosa's reply to the Budget Vote 1 debate on the Presidency, intensifying the party's long-running confrontation with the head of state over the Phala Phala farm scandal and the constitutional process that followed.
The EFF said it would not lend political legitimacy to a leader it regards as unfit to hold office, citing Ramaphosa's latest move to approach the courts to review a ruling that found Parliament's earlier rejection of the Section 89 Independent Panel Report unconstitutional.
"Ramaphosa, who is currently attempting to avoid accountability by asking the courts to review the Section 89 Independent Panel Report, which found prima facie evidence that he may have committed serious violations of the Constitution and the law, does not deserve an audience in parliament until impeachment proceedings against him are concluded," EFF said.
The party traced the origins of the dispute to December 2022, when Ramaphosa first sought a court review of the panel's findings ahead of a scheduled National Assembly vote.
