The two-day debate that began on Tuesday also gave opposition parties and the ruling ANC a chance to respond to the annual address where the president sets the government’s priorities for the new year.
However, given that 2014 is an election year another state of the nation would be held in May.
The opposition parties have focused on some of the corruption scandals that dogged Zuma’s administration in the previous year.
Democratic Alliance official Lindiwe Mazibuko who was the first opposition party leader in the hot seat vowed to table a motion to impeach Zuma if the public protector’s report on the construction of Zuma’s homestead in Nkandla found the president guilty of wrongdoing.
The multi-million dollar compound has been a nightmare for Zuma and his administration.
Mazibuko said she wanted to deliver a strong message on the Nkandla “scandal”.
“I want to use this opportunity to send a very clear message to our honourable members, that should the honorable president be involved in any wrongdoing in the public protector’s report on the Nkandla scandal, I will not hesitate to table a motion to impeach him in this House,” she said.
But the ANC dismissed Mazibuko’s warning as an empty, rhetorical threat.
“We are aware that, with the election looming, some political leaders will blow plenty of hot air at every direction in order to grab as many headlines as possible,” ANC Chief Whip Stone Sizani said in a statement.
“There are opposition parties in parliament who have offered the electorate no alternative or creative ideas since 2009, except to repeatedly call for the president of the country to resign.”
Zuma would respond to the debate on Thursday afternoon.
Source: The African Report
