Cape Town - The ruling ANC is helping to paralyse the functioning of Parliament, the Congress of the People (Cope) said after Speaker Baleka Mbete adjourned the House on Thursday when EFF MPs would not stop chanting "pay back the money".
Cope president Mosiuoa Lekota said the party was "shocked at the obtuseness of the ruling African National Congress regarding the Nkandla debacle".
"The more that the ruling party MPs and ministers collude in protecting a morally flawed President on the scandalous expenditure at his homestead, the more they compromise their own integrity and the standing of parliament," Lekota said in a statement.
"In the process, the ruling party is helping to paralyse the functioning of Parliament."
Earlier, EFF MPs insisted that President Jacob Zuma answer questions directly related to their demand that he pay back state money spent on security upgrades at his private home, instead of following the programme.
Lekota was seen pleading with Zuma to be accountable before the sitting was abandoned.
He said that invoking the "sub judice" rule over Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir's controversial departure from South Africa on Monday should not impede accountability.
"The ruling party in recent years has abused parliamentary rules and flouted legislation and international protocols.
"It has made the proud and dignified Parliament of Nelson Mandela’s time into a mockery.
"If the President complies with the law and the Constitution and occupies the moral high ground, everyone else will do the same."
Lekota was part of a faction which broke away from the ANC in a power struggle between supporters of Zuma and former president Thabo Mbeki.
