Cape Town - Four Democratic Alliance members have been arrested, including two leaders, after police unleashed water cannons on the group lining Adderley Street ahead of the State of the Nation Address.
A spokesman for the DA said Cape Metro regional chair Shaun August as well as national spokesman Marius Redelinghuys were arrested after an argument broke out between police and DA supporters.
DA spokesman Shaun Moffit said police told him they had order to remove the DA supporters from the street before President Jacob Zuma arrived.
Several hundred DA supporters dressed in blue gear lined the side of Adderley Street closest to St Georges Mall, waiting for Zuma to proceed up the street.
Before he was arrested, August said: “We are coming to see how our president looks because he’s been absent the whole year, we’ve forgotten what he looks like.”
August stressed that they were peaceful spectators.
“We’ve got no placards, we are peaceful. We are here to send a clear message that Zuma must resign.”
Minutes later, a clash with police saw August being arrested and loaded into a police van with three other DA members.
Moffit said: “We had to tell police that we are spectators at a state event. They said they have orders from above to remove us before the president comes up Adderley.”
Moffit said that the argument continued with police, until the supporters were herded back from the street.
“They tried moving us back,” he said,” then they were charging us with their shields, they got very aggressive.”
That was when the water cannons were unleashed, blasting supporters, spectators and media alike back towards Greenmarket Square.
When the DA supporters regrouped, they were told by a leader to find taxis and head home, because that was the only safe option at that point.
However, many responded by chanting that they would not go.
Police spokesman Colonel Tembinkosi Kinana said he would be only be able to comment later, when information had been reported back from the police teams at the scene.
“At this stage we can't give a blow by blow account of what is happening in town,” he said. “We will only be able to give comment on these allegations once we are in a position to confirm.”
ANC members were also reportedly arrested, although the Cape Argus has been unable to confirm this.
Cape Argus