CAPE TOWN - Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) leaders want President Cyril Ramaphosa to be subpoenaed to testify in their disciplinary hearing for storming the stage during his State of the Nation Address (SONA) in February.
Theyve also questioned whether Ramaphosa felt threatened when party leader Julius Malema, his deputy Floyd Shivambu and other MPs stormed the stage while Ramaphosa was about to deliver his State of the Nation Address.
The EFF MPs were eventually forcibly removed from the stage and were later slapped with charges by Parliaments powers and privileges committee.
READ: Sona 2023: disruptive EFF members kicked out of National Assembly
The committee sat on Monday to hear submissions from the prosecutor and the EFFs defence lawyers.
Its been ten months since the incident took place on 9 February at the Cape Town City Hall when EFF leaders had to be removed from the stage during SONA.
But EFF legal representative, Advocate Tembeka Ngcukaitobi, has applied for the matter to be postponed to next year while also calling for a retired judge to hear the matter first.
This is an application that can be dealt with in January or February. There's no reason why it should be dealt with this week.
Ngcukaitobi said President Ramaphosa must also be subpoenaed to explain how he was threatened.
But we want to issue the subpoena against the Speaker or the president so that they can explain how they have construed the rules and the president can explain whether or not he was threatened.
