JZ ‘turns SA into police state with PW tactics’

President Jacob Zuma has turned South Africa into a police state, Democratic Alliance chief whip John Steenhuisen charged last night, after the Economic Freedom Fighters’ MPs were dragged out of the National Assembly.

After the DA left the National Assembly, leaving Zuma to finally deliver his speech to a half empty chamber, Steenhuisen said South Africans would rise against him for returning to apartheid era security tactics.

“President Jacob Zuma had led this country into a police state. We saw what PW Botha did in the 1980s when he turned the security forces on the citizens of the country. The people rose against them and they will rise against Zuma.”

Steenhuisen said the use of force was excessive and the deployment of military and riot police in Parliament was wholly unlawful. “It was not commensurate, the level of violence and damage does not belong in a constitutional democracy.”

Fellow DA MP Gavin Davis said he was shocked to see security men kick EFF women who had fallen to the ground. “It was sickening.”

Meanwhile, DA leader Mmusi Maimane pledged that he would approach courts after the joint sitting of Parliament for Zuma’s State of the Nation address descended into chaos and fistfights.

“The Constitution makes it clear that the army and the police cannot enter this chamber. Inside there, they pulled teargas, and they protected Jacob Zuma using the military and police. It has become quite clear that Parliament is now a broken institution and that (speaker) Baleka Mbete is simply there to protect Zuma,” Maimane said, addressing local and international journalists outside Parliament.

“We will be in court tomorrow applying for a review application.”

“Teargas was deployed in the gallery of Parliament. This is a serious matter which violates the very essence of our Constitution,” said Maimane.