A session of South Africa’s parliament convened for a keynote address by the president descended into chaos on Thursday as far-left lawmakers brawled with orderlies after interrupting the speech and the main opposition party walked out.<\/p>\n
Deputies from the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) party fired questions at Jacob Zuma for more than an hour, forcing the president – whose authority has been tarnished by a series of scandals – to halt his state-of-the-nation speech.<\/p>\n
Zuma had earlier authorized more than 400 soldiers to join the security team outside the building during the speech, an unprecedented move his opponents described as a “militarization” of parliament.<\/p>\n
Speaker Baleka Mbete ordered the EFF contingent ejected after their leader Julius Malema called Zuma “rotten to the core”.<\/p>\n
Exiting the chamber with his deputies a short time later, opposition Democratic Alliance party leader Mmusi Maimane said the president was unfit to hold office.<\/p>\n
Previous Zuma speeches in parliament have led to disruptions but Thursday’s – in which he said the government would push for a greater role for blacks in the economy – was the most violent, with the scuffles spilling over into the precinct of the building, Reuters reporters saw.<\/p>\n
A couple of blocks away, police fired stun grenades to disperse supporters of the EFF and the president’s African National Congress (ANC) party.<\/p>\n
The party holds more than 60 percent of the 400 seats in parliament but Zuma faced a revolt by some ANC members in November<\/p>\n
That same month an anti-corruption watchdog called for a judicial inquiry into alleged influence-peddling in his government. He has denied the allegations.<\/p>\n
UNCONSTITUTIONAL?<\/p>\n
The Democratic Alliance’s Maimane questioned the deployment of soldiers at the legislature, and his party said it would seek a court ruling on whether this breached the country’s basic law.<\/p>\n
“The ANC under Jacob Zuma has broken parliament and the constitution,” Maimane said in a statement.<\/p>\n
Defense Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula told reporters that soldiers were on standby but had not been deployed on the streets.<\/p>\n
A Reuters reporter saw two soldiers near the parliament building.<\/p>\n
In the speech he resumed after the fighting ended, Zuma took issue with the distribution of wealth in a domestic economy still mostly controlled by whites more than two decades after apartheid ended in 1994.<\/p>\n
“Political freedom is incomplete without economic emancipation,” he said.<\/p>\n
“Today we are starting a new chapter of radical socio-economic transformation. We are saying that we should move beyond words, to practical programs.”<\/p>\n
Zuma’s speeches have been disrupted before. In September, he complained about being abused by opposition parties and asked the Speaker to address the issue.<\/p>\n
But Daniel Silke, a director at Political Futures Consultancy, described Thursday’s incidents as very serious, adding: “The ANC will come out very poorly after this.”<\/p>\n
Silke said investors would remain cautious as they awaited details of the economic transformation Zuma evoked.<\/p>\n
The economy has slowed sharply over the past five years while unemployment has hit a record 27 percent, fuelling criticism that Zuma faced for extravagantly furnishing his country home at taxpayers’ expense.<\/p>\n
In September, the president took out a home loan to repay state money spent on non-security-related upgrades there, in compliance with a court order.<\/p>\n
Source: Reuters<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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