Clashes inside and outside Parliament mar Zuma’s address to nation
Stun grenades outside Parliament and brawls between opposition lawmakers and security personnel marred South African President Jacob Zuma’s state- of- the- nation speech.
Parliamentary Speaker Baleka Mbete called in the security personnel to remove members of the Economic Freedom Fighters after they refused to stop trying to delay the address. As soon as the President entered the chamber in Cape Town, EFF members, wearing their trademark red overalls, shouted “tsotsi”, or criminal, while their counterparts from the ruling African National Congress tried to drown them out by chanting “president”.
Before being ejected, EFF members engaged in fistfights with security agents as they moved in. The main opposition party, the Democratic Alliance, and several other opposition groups walked out of the assembly.
Outside Parliament, EFF and ANC supporters clashed.
Zuma resumed his speech 80 minutes after he was due to begin.
“Parliament has been militarised,” EFF leader Julius Malema said outside the chamber after he was thrown out. “This place has been declared a state of emergency.”
The sight of the legislature being reduced to fistfights and the security clampdown outside showed the tensions in South Africa’s democracy that have deepened under Zuma’s controversial Administration.
The scope of the lockdown was unprecedented since the end of apartheid more than t wo decades ago. Zuma ordered 441 soldiers to join about 6000 police to maintain order during his speech. They erected barricades and closed roads around the legislature, preventing antigovernment protesters from approaching the precinct.
Under Zuma’s presidency the economy has floundered, with the Treasury predicting 0.5 per cent growth last year, and the 27 per cent jobless rate is the highest since 2003.
The ANC suffered its worst electoral performance last year, when it lost control of Pretoria, the capital, and the economic hub of Johannesburg. While Zuma has said he will step down as head of the ANC in December, his presidential term continues until 2019. A Peruvian judge yesterday ordered the arrest of former President Alejandro Toledo on suspicion of taking bribes from a Brazilian construction company at the heart of a region- wide corruption scandal. Judge Richard Concepcion accepted prosecutors’ request that Toledo be jailed for up to 18 months as they investigate allegations he received US$ 20 million ($ 27.8m) in bribes from Odebrecht in exchange for permission to build a highway connecting Brazil with the Peruvian coast. Toledo, who was President from 2001- 2006, has denied any wrongdoing. He is believed to be abroad. Twelve people including young children were killed in landslides on the tourist island of Bali that wiped out several homes, Indonesia’s disaster mitigation agency said yesterday. The agency’s spokesman said landslides hit three villages in mountainous areas of Bangli district and were caused by sustained torrential rains. Members of two families were among those killed in Songan village, including a 1- yearold boy, his 7- year- old sister and their mother. Four people were killed in Awan village and one person died in Sukawana village. The agency said more heavy rains are likely and people should be aware of the possibility of landslides and floods. Rains often cause flooding and landslides in Indonesia, an archipelago where millions of people live in mountainous areas or on flood plains near rivers. The southeastern Brazilian state of Espirito Santo has turned over security duties to the army as it tries to solve a police crisis that has led to a wave of violence and at least 100 deaths. The decree authorising the transfer was published this week in the state’s official gazette. The killings in the state capital of Vitoria and other cities erupted as friends and family of military police officers blocked their barracks at the weekend to demand higher pay for the officers. Brazil’s military police force patrols the nation’s cities and is barred by law from going on strike. The union representing civil police officers said 101 people had been killed since police stopped patrolling the streets last week. The state Government has not released a death toll. Some buses circulated for a few hours yesterday morning, but union officials ordered them off the streets.