Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) leader Julius Malema began his speech at the State of the Nation Address (SoNA) debate on Tuesday by disputing claims that he had threatened and intimidated President Cyril Ramaphosa at SoNA on Thursday.

EFF members stormed towards the president during SoNA and were forcibly removed by the police and officers from the Parliamentary Protection Services.

"I have known the president of the ANC [African National Congress] longer than many of you, and he has known me since I was very young. Under no circumstances will he ever be threatened by me, or can he feel that his life is under threat because Julius is next to him," Malema said on Tuesday.

According to Malema, the following day at the Presidential Golf Challenge, the president said that he had not felt threatened by him and that he was not scared when he was with him in Parliament.

"So, what are you saying, the people who use your own stomachs to think?" asked Malema of those who insinuated that he had threatened Ramaphosa.

"There is no need for you to behave like you can protect him against the people who sit next to him in the chamber, and he does so without even having bodyguards, without being intimidated."

The EFF leader also questioned the presence of the police at SoNA.

"So, what were the police doing here? They were here because the [National Assembly] Speaker [Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula] had lost total control of this Parliament, and that's why she must step down," he said.

Later in the debate, ANC member of Parliament Xola Nqola chastised the EFF for its behaviour, calling it "anarchy".

"We cannot use taxpayers' money to fly to Cape Town to attend SoNA, get in the House and behave like gang leaders of amaphara (gangsters).

The conduct of some members was clearly not aimed at holding the president to account but deliberately aimed at subverting our democracy, which we now understand is meant to appease the insatiable lust for power and relevance by some delusional individuals," he said.

News24 previously reported that after EFF MPs were removed from the Chamber, Malema told journalists that the behaviour of members of his party had been "peaceful".

He claimed that EFF MPs only wanted to stand on stage silently with placards. "The president would have proceeded to address the nation in the presence of protests," Malema said at the time.