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(Special for CAFS) SACP condemns disruption of Parliament

Xinhua, February 14, 2015 Adjust font size:

The South African Communist Party (SACP) on Friday condemned "in the strongest terms possible the premeditated disruption" of the State of the Nation Address (SONA) by President Jacob Zuma.

"The SACP supports the action taken by the presiding officers of parliament to stop the anarchy," the party said in a statement.

Zuma was interrupted when he delivered the SONA in Parliament Thursday night.

MPs of the Economic Freedom Fighters questioned Zuma over when he could pay back the money spent on the security upgrades in his private home in Nkandla, KwaZulu-Natal Province, a project which allegedly cost 246 million rand (about 22 million US dollars).

This plunged Parliament into chaos for about 30 minutes. Security forces were called in to expel EFF MPs from Parliament.

MPs of the Democratic Alliance (DA) staged a walkout of Parliament in protest against the calling of police into Parliament.

The SACP called for new preventive and responsive measures to bring to an end the abuse and misuse of parliament to disrupt its mandate and hold back the advance of the democratic, social and economic transformation of the country.

"The counter-productive behavior of disrupting the work of our democratically elected parliament and government accountability can only be the work of those who are not interested to see South Africa move forward," the SACP said.

The long-planned disruption of parliament received active support from the anti-majoritarians, including sections of the media, who turned a blind eye on the disgusting deeds of their useful allies, the disrupters, said the SACP.

There were also many other attempts outside Parliament to disrupt and distract attention from the SONA, the party said.

It was referring to protests outside Parliament before and during the delivery of the SONA.

Police used water cannons to disperse the protesters and arrested dozens of them, including some opposition MPs.

"The success in dealing with the disruption and disrespect for important national events such as the State of the Nation Address therefore requires more work outside than can be done inside Parliament," said the SACP, a coalition partner with the ruling African National Congress (ANC). Endi