ANC drowns out protesting journalists

Around 25 journalists had launched a protest in the press gallery over not having any cellphone reception to file their stories.

"Bring back the signal, bring back the signal," they chanted, waving their cellphones at an electronic black box believed to be jamming signal.
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The media sent Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa's spokesperson Ronnie Mamoepa to call President Jacob Zuma's spokesperson from a nearby gallery to complain.
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The EFF has vowed to disrupt Zuma's address unless a special sitting of the National Assembly is scheduled beforehand for him to answer questions about the upgrades to his private homestead at Nkandla, in KwaZulu-Natal.

http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/Politics/ANC-drowns-out-protesting-journalists-20150212

Shortly afterwards, Mbete announced: “The scrambling has been unscrambled”. And, hey presto! Suddenly full cellphone signal was restored to the National Assembly.

With this disturbing incident dealt with, the show could resume as normal. With no reference to what had just transpired, President Zuma began his address. He had managed just a few lines, however, before the EFF’s Godrich Gardee rose on a “point of privilege” and demanded the right to speak to ask the President “when he is going to pay back the money” (for Nkandla). For a few excruciating moments Zuma simply continued to speak over him, until Mbete intervened to remind Gardee that this was not a question session.
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Mbete, who appeared to be reading from a prepared script, announced that she would ask Parliament’s Sergeant-at-Arms, together with the Usher of the Black Rod, to remove the men. When these individuals failed to budge the EFF MPs, the order was given to call in security forces.

They flooded in with previously unseen speed and efficiency, in stunning numbers: dozens and dozens of men in white shirts and black trousers (some jacketed), streaming down and blocking every entrance to the National Assembly. At the same time, members of President Zuma’s private protection force unobtrusively took up positions in front of the President to guard him.

Viewers at home will have seen little or nothing of the subsequent melee, since the parliamentary TV feed seemed to keep cameras trained largely on the Speaker. A video shot by the Daily Maverick’s Ranjeni Munusamy shows what happened next.

http://www.enca.com/opinion/sona-shame-nation-2015