By: Natasha Archary
The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) have kept their promise of disrupting President Cyril Ramaphosa’s Budget Vote.
Earlier this week, the EFF expressed that if the President addresses Parliament on Thursday, 09 June, they will not give him the platform.
In true EFF style, the red berets have raised several points of order and refuse to allow him to deliver the Budget Vote.
The President’s address was scheduled for 14h00, an hour later and the interruptions are still going on.
Multiple EFF members are speaking over the President and the Honourable Speaker.
“We cannot listen to a criminal. Why isn’t he at the police station answering questions about his criminal activities?”
The EFF disrupting Parliament
The EFF’s stance comes after President Ramaphosa was implicated in a cover up of a robbery at his Limpopo farm in 2020.
Eventually, Speaker of the National Assembly, Mapisa Nqakula managed to get order by removing the EFF members, and the President proceeded with his address.
Budget Vote 2022
The President began his Budget Vote by stating that the country’s economy grew by 1.9%, according to StatsSA.
“Amidst our challenges, there is cause for optimism as our economy is beginning to show positive signs of recovery.”
Ramaphosa on the state of the country’s economy
Our trade figures show further evidence of economic recovery.
— Cyril Ramaphosa 🇿🇦 (@CyrilRamaphosa) June 9, 2022
In 2021, we posted the largest trade surplus on record at R448 billion, the highest since 1987.
#PresidencyBudget #BudgetVote2022 https://t.co/B7gyV9Sko9
In his address, Ramaphosa said the Presidency’s priority is to improve the lives of every South African man, woman, and child. He maintains that the people of SA must come first in all we do.
“We are still in the grip of a devastating pandemic that has caused over 100,000 reported deaths in our country. Poverty, unemployment and under-development cast a heavy cloud, and are preventing millions of people from leading lives of dignity.”
The devastating floods in KZN is still a priority, with the President saying government is still costing the repercussion of the July unrest as well as the floods.
Assessments are also being counted for the Eastern Cape, and the North West.
In the latest Quarterly Labour Force Survey, data shows the number of unemployed people in the country dropped in the first 3 months of 2022.
This means that 370 000 jobs created in the last quarter of 2021 and the first quarter of this year.
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