Deon de Lange

A HEAVY security buffer was thrown around Parliament yesterday for President Jacob Zuma’s State of the Nation address.

Several city blocks were placed under strict police control, dozens of roads were shut off to the public, snipers were deployed on rooftops and a phalanx of stern officials barked warnings at journalists.

“Do as you’re told and don’t get on my bad side,” one journalist was told when she dared to venture beyond the red-roped confines of what security personnel described as the “media block” – a 25m2 space in front of the Old Assembly Building.

Every entrance to the precinct was manned by police officers, who scanned the pockets and searched the handbags of pedestrians.

IFP leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi complained that “the securocrats” appeared to have finally taken over SA.

“Never before have such extreme security measures been put in place… It is difficult to get around the conclusion that all this is done as a display of grandeur by the security apparatus to show politicians who is really in charge.”