South African President Zuma answering questions in Parliament

South African President Jacob Zuma took the podium on Wednesday to answer parliamentary questions, the first time since Parliament was interrupted last year.

Zuma will only be responding to six questions from MPs under a parliamentary schedule.

The opposition wants answers from Zuma regarding questions raised in a Q&A session on August 21 last year when MPs of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) pressed Zuma with questions in relation to the Nkandla scandal.

This refers to the security upgrades at Zuma's private home in Nkandla, KwaZulu-Natal Province, a project which allegedly cost public funds worth of 246 million rand (about 20.2 million U.S. dollars).

As a result of ensuing chaos, Parliament was disrupted, the first time since 1994 when the first democratically elected House was formed.

In Wednesday's session, EFF leader Julius Malema said Parliament Speaker Baleka Mbete needs to seriously take the opposition Democratic Alliance's (DA's) proposal about Zuma to come back and answer questions raised on August 21.

"If you agree to this this will be the most peaceful meeting I promise," Malema said.

Malema made another pleas for Parliament to commit that Thursday's session will come out with a date for Zuma to answer the August 21 questions.

But when Zuma was taking the podium, he was answering a question raised by a MP of the ruling African National Congress (ANC) about whether there has been progress on the back to basics approach to local government.

He said the govenrment is working to improve the quality of services and the speed at which they are delivered.

"We want to improve governance, managing resources, this approach adopted by all government spheres," Zuma said. Endi