Durban - President Jacob Zuma used the National Day of Prayer for Unity event in Durban on Sunday to launch an attack on the EFF, which he accused of introducing a foreign culture of hooliganism into Parliament and the country.
Without mentioning his arch-rivals by name, Zuma said it was shocking to see acts of violence in Parliament, “a place meant to make laws to develop the country”.
There were many empty seats at the Kings Park Stadium when Zuma delivered his keynote address, with observers estimating a crowd of less than 10 000. In attendance were religious leaders from numerous churches and faiths, and ANC members in party regalia.
Last week in Parliament EFF members hurled water from water bottles and a red helmet at security personnel who had been instructed by Speaker Baleka Mbete to remove them.
Men wearing the party’s regalia were later seen damaging Parliament property.
Zuma described the violence as an attempt to take the country back to the apartheid era, which was engulfed by political violence.
“We have realised that there are people trying to introduce bad behaviour that takes our country back to violence. They want our children to be hooligans,” he said.
He linked chaos in Parliament to violent acts elsewhere in the country which had led to the burning of more than 20 schools in Vumani, Limpopo.
“We are seeing violence in universities where buildings are burnt down at Fort Hare, University of Johannesburg, Tshwane University of Technology, Wits University, North West and UKZN and other universities.
“We want our children to be educated and be able to solve the country’s problems, but they are acting violently,” he said. He called on South Africans to unite in rejecting violence that would deprive them of the right to elect leaders during the coming local government elections.
“Let us not allow people to use violence, insults and hooliganism to succeed in taking our country back,” he said.
Some speakers urged people “not to forget the ruling party during the elections”.
“The ruling party has brought us here (to the stadium). In August we are going to vote and we are not going to leave the ruling party aside,” said ANC MPL Vusi Dube.
Twelve Apostles’ Church in Christ pastor Caesar Nongqunga said God had “anointed Zuma to be the president”, despite many attempts to prevent him from taking the highest seat in the land.
“The grace that God has given you, my president, is sufficient. Sit back and think of everything that happened to you before you became the president of this country. No one wanted you, no one liked the idea that you would be the president of South Africa.
“But by the grace of God, who appointed you before you were born, it became possible.
“All the pressures that are mounting on you are nothing but an oil that allows you to move further through the blessing that God has blessed with,” Nongqunga told Zuma.
The Mercury