Pretoria - State Security Minister David Mahlobo wants a full report on the “security breach” which saw four women stage a silent protest while President Jacob Zuma was delivering his municipal elections results acceptance speech at the Electoral Commission of SA (IEC) results operations centre in Pretoria on Saturday night.
“They have that democratic right [to protest], that we respect. But equally, we must also respect that there are security parameters…,” Mahlobo told a media briefing by the inter-ministerial committee on elections on Sunday.
“We should be getting a full report to say what’s happening at that particular results operations centre in terms of our security forces that were there, including the security arrangements by the IEC; the minister of state security and the police should be able to get a report.”
Here is #RememberKhwezi protesters being harassed by presidential security. @IOL #IOl pic.twitter.com/07xfF4fF2L
— Rumana Akoob (@RumanaAkoob) August 6, 2016
Asked whether he supported Social Development Minister Bathabile Dlamini’s demand for an apology from IEC chairman Glen Mashinini, Mahlobo noted that IEC deputy chairman Terry Tselane had apologised to Zuma shortly after his speech. Mahlobo denied the four women were arrested, citing a tweet one of the women posted that she was safely home.
The four young women, who are members of the Economic Freedom Fighters and were manning the EFF desk at the IEC results centre throughout the week, went to the front of the hall and held up placards that referred to Zuma’s rape trial in 2006, while he delivered his speech live on television.
The placards read “10 years later”, “Remember Khwezi”, “I am one in 3,” and “Khanga”, referencing Zuma’s rape trial in which he was acquitted of raping a friend’s daughter at his home.
Dlamini and Small Business Development Minister Lindiwe Zulu were seen shouting at their defence counterpart Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, blaming her for the “security breach”. “You sold us out,” Zulu was overheard shouting at Mapisa-Nqakula.
African News Agency