EFF fails in court bid to force Parliament to allow Malema, Shivambu, Ndlozi & others to attend SONA

CAPE TOWN - The Western Cape High Court has struck off the roll the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF)'s urgent application to force Parliament to allow its MPs to attend the State of the Nation Address (SONA).

The MPs include leader Julius Malema, Mbuyiseni Ndlozi and deputy, Floyd Shivambu, who were sanctioned for disrupting President Cyril Ramaphosa during last year’s State of the Nation Address.

This means the party’s leadership won’t attend SONA after the National Assembly suspended them for the month of February.

The party was also hit with a cost order by the court on Tuesday. 

The EFF had approached the court on an urgent basis to have that decision of the National Assembly set aside as Parliament prepares for next month’s State of the Nation Address.

The National Assembly last year adopted the report of the powers and privileges committee, which recommended the suspension of Julius Malema and Floyd 
Shivambu in February, ruling them out of attending SONA.

Judge Nathan Erasmus lamented the late filing of papers by the EFF, saying it was their own doing, before making his ruling.

"The application is struck from the roll. The applicants shall pay the first, second, third and sixth respondents’ costs of the application."

Erasmus said there was a dissenting judgment by Judge Daniel Thulare, who said the applicants raised novel and complex constitutional issues.