Who came first, democratic SA or the ANC? : Zuma
Opposition MPs have confronted President Jacob Zuma about his recent comments that the ANC comes first.
He said this during his keynote address at the party's Provincial Elective Congress in Pietermaritzburg two weeks ago.
While answering questions in the National Assembly earlier this afternoon, Zuma said he makes a clear distinction between leading the ANC and South Africa.
"This house did not elect me to be the president of the ANC, you are making a big mistake. You are making a muddle up of issues," he said.
Zuma then posed a question to the MPs.
The EFF's Mbuyiseni Ndlozi was not impressed with the President's intermittent bursts of laughter and rose on a point of order.
"Madam Speaker, the President answers a question, says absolutely nothing and then laughs. Our questions are jokes [to him]. He laughs. This is not the Trevor Noah show," an irked Ndlozi said.
Earlier, when answering a question on higher education institutions, Zuma said it would be important to manage the balance between academic freedom and the independence of institutions of higher learning.
He says academic freedom is a constitutional right but that it must be balanced with universities' abilities to rightfully do their job.
"There's no autonomy that could be absolute. It's relative and everything is relative. That is what must be found within balancing, because it must be balanced.
"You can't have an autonomy that it absolute. That's a very important political point," he said.
This was Zuma's last Q&A session in the National Assembly for the year.
(File photo)