Storm after EFF’s Shivambu assaults journo at parliament
EFF deputy president Floyd Shivambu regrets his “impatience” and says he will write a formal apology after a confrontation with a journalist outside parliament in Cape Town yesterday.
The assault sparked widespread condemnation and calls on the party to distance itself from its deputy president’s behaviour.
Shivambu was caught on camera assaulting Adrian de Kock‚ from Media 24‚ who was waiting with other journalists outside the building where Cape Town mayor Patricia de Lille’s disciplinary hearing is taking place.
De Kock saw Shivambu‚ asked if he wanted to comment about the hearing and took pictures of the politician. Shivambu then insisted that De Kock delete the images because he had not given consent for them to be taken.
He held De Kock by the neck and tried to grab the camera‚ and two unknown men also approached the journalist.
“Leave my stuff alone. Leave my stuff alone‚” the journalist is heard shouting as he was being manhandled.
“Floyd grabbed my throat saying‚ ‘you don’t have permission’‚” the shaken journalist said.
In a statement issued by the EFF later‚ Shivambu admitted to being involved in a scuffle, but said he did not regard it as an assault on De Kock or on media freedom.
His statement read in part: “I take full responsibility and apologise for engaging in a scuffle with a person I discovered [afterwards] is a journalist.”
Education activist Hendrick Makaneta warned: “Shivambu’s action sends a strong message that if EFF can become government‚ there will be censorship against journalists.”
Veteran journalist Max du Preez said on Twitter: “The last time I remember politicians intimidating journalists like [that] was when Eugene TerreBlanche’s AWB thugs pushed me and others around.” – TimesLIVE