EFF's urgent court application to have its leadership attend SONA dismissed
The dismissal of the EFF’s latest urgent application to compel Parliament to allow its leaders to attend SONA is their third defeat in the courts in a week.
Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) party leader Julius Malema protest on stage as South African President Cyril Ramaphosa attempts to deliver his 2023 State of the Nation Address (SONA) at the Cape Town City Hall in Cape Town on February 9, 2023. Picture: ESA ALEXANDER / AFP
CAPE TOWN - The Western Cape High Court has dismissed the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF)'s urgent application to have Julius Malema and five other MPs attend the State of the Nation Address (SONA) on Thursday evening.
The court handed down judgment on Thursday morning following Tuesday’s oral submissions by the EFF and Parliament’s counsels.
The EFF had argued that it was their right to peacefully protest during last year's SONA and the sanctions by the powers and privileges committee and the National Assembly were unlawful.
The dismissal of the EFF’s latest urgent application to compel Parliament to allow its leaders to attend SONA is their third defeat in the courts in a week.
The party had called the decision of the National Assembly to adopt a report recommending the suspensions as unconstitutional and gave the majority party too much power.
But high court judge Kate Savage stated in her ruling that the EFF should have taken the opportunity after the matter was struck off the roll the first time last week, to reconsider its position afresh.
Instead, she said, the party simply proceeded to "recklessly" re-enrol the matter again "after applying minor cosmetic surgery to it".
The court also noted how the EFF urgent application and its failure to meet certain timeframes was also an "abuse of process".
The court also hit the EFF with a cost order like it did in its last urgent application to interdict the new joint rules which will coincidentally be implemented for the first time at Thursday evening's SONA.