Staff Writers
CHAOTIC scenes played out on the Cape Town CBD streets Thursday as protesters marched for and against President Jacob Zuma before his State of the Nation (Sona) address.
Police were forced to use stun grenades in the early evening to try to control the protesters.
The EFF, the ANC and Ses’Khona Peoples Movement, along with Zuma Must Fall and #FeesMustFall protesters, converged in different parts of the CBD, and while the protests were mostly peaceful, scuffles broke out occasionally.
The City had refused a permit for Ses’Khona to protest at the DA Federal Head Office in Mill Street, thus they picketed in Keizersgracht Street.
Albrecht said the DA had asked for permission for 500 people to stand outside its head office for a counter-protest, but after Ses’khona was prevented from marching to the office, the DA withdrew its application.
Later in the afternoon, breakaway groups from these various marches were prevented by law enforcement from going anywhere near Parliament, being stopped by barbed wire barricades.
The police, who tried to prevent the Ses’Khona People’s Rights Movement supporters – gathered at the Grand Parade – from going near Parliament, were struck with a variety of objects.
Addressing about 2 000 picketers in Keizersgracht Street, where Ses’Khona met early in the morning, its leader, Loyiso Nkohla, called for the movement’s activists to prevent DA members living in the townships from canvassing before the local government elections.
A picketer, Ntombozuko Luma, 30, said she had come to the picket to protect Zuma from protesters. “We know there are many people and organisations that are here today to taunt President Zuma, and we are here to give him our support,” said Luma.
ANC provincial spokesperson Jabu Mfusi said the party called on people to defend South Africa’s democracy.
Chaos later broke out between some ANC and EFF supporters, and Public Order Police used stun grenades to disperse the crowd.
ANC supporter Nokulunga Mhlonijwa, 24, from Philippi, was trampled as police forced marchers into the Grand Parade parking lot. Her leg was injured as a result.
Rhodes Must Fall and student activists from UWC, CPUT and Stellenbosch University also joined the protests as part of their #FeesMustFall and #EndOutsourcing campaigns.
UCT student Mohammed Jameel Abdulla said: “We are intent on making our way to Parliament to make our voices heard. We are resolute.
“We are calling on the president to continue where he left off last year and heed our call for free education and an end to outsourcing.”
At the top of Adderley Street, EFF supporters assaulted an ANC supporter who had confronted them.