With the official television camera discreetly turned away, the police and security guards poured into South Africa’s Parliament from two doors. In a clearly well-rehearsed operation, they grabbed two dozen opposition MPs and violently ejected them from the chamber, leaving several with injuries.
It was a brutal end to a rebellion by an unruly group of radical opposition politicians. But the question that’s being asked now is whether it represents a turning point in South Africa’s fledgling democracy, barely 20 years after the end of apartheid.
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An hour before the crackdown on Thursday night, journalists in the press gallery had noticed an ominous development: Their cellphones had stopped working. Cell signals had apparently been scrambled to prevent any live coverage of a planned opposition protest against President Jacob Zuma during his annual state-of-the-nation speech.
“Bring back the signal,” the journalists and opposition MPs chanted in Parliament. They waved their non-functioning cellphones in protest against the scrambling of the cell signal. Several MPs demanded explanations, saying it was a clear violation of constitutional guarantees of free expression.
Just moments before Mr. Zuma’s speech, parliamentary Speaker Baleka Mbete – who is also chairwoman of the ruling African National Congress – finally announced that the cell signal had been “unscrambled.” At a news conference later, cabinet minister Jeff Radebe was unable to say why the cell signal had been jammed or who had authorized it. South African journalists called it a sinister development.
But worse was to come, as opposition MPs were grabbed and forcibly removed from the parliamentary chamber. Some threw punches or hurled cups and hats in response. The violent ejections left injuries and overturned desks in their wake, as rows of diplomats and dignitaries watched in shock from the public gallery.
Julius Malema, leader of the radical Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) party, said the country was turning into “a police state” where the government uses the “security apparatus” to solve political disputes. “It’s a sad day when elected representatives, including women, can be beaten by police,” he told reporters later.
Mr. Zuma’s government was aware that the EFF planned to interrupt his speech, and it apparently decided in advance to crush the protest. It had given three days of special crowd-control training to parliamentary guards last week, South African media said. The police and guards, waiting outside the chamber, rushed in to grab the MPs as soon as the Speaker gave the signal, after she lost patience with persistent EFF attempts to raise points of privilege about Mr. Zuma’s conduct.
The EFF, the third-biggest party in Parliament, had vowed for weeks that it would interrupt the President’s annual speech. It wants Mr. Zuma to repay some of the $23-million (U.S.) state-funded upgrade to his family home in Nkandla village, since a public watchdog had concluded that the upgrade had personally benefited him.
Mr. Zuma’s speech on Thursday night was his first appearance in Parliament since last August, when he abandoned a question session after the EFF heckled him with chants of “Pay back the money.” Riot police had made a brief appearance in Parliament last year, but Thursday’s crackdown against the EFF was the most heavy-handed so far.
“It’s a profound moment in the history of our nation,” said Mmusi Maimane, parliamentary leader of the Democratic Alliance, the largest opposition party, after his party walked out of Parliament to protest the police intervention.
He said the state-controlled police had infringed on the independence of Parliament. “Tonight’s sitting was nothing short of a disaster,” he said. “It is clear the ANC’s use of heavy-handed security was planned well in advance, given the scrambling of the cell signal.”