#FloydShivambu 'regrets' assault on journalist outside Parliament

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Published Mar 20, 2018

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Cape Town - Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) deputy president and MP Floyd Shivambu on Tuesday afternoon apologised for his assault on a journalist outside the Parliament precinct. 

Earlier, footage emerged showing Shivambu embroiled in a scuffle with Adrian de Kock, a multimedia journalist at Netwerk24, after he approached Shivambu for comment on Cape Town mayor Patricia de Lille.

De Kock said he approached Shivambu for comment on the de Lille issue but was almost immediately pushed away in full view of journalists and Parliamentary staff.

Shivambu in a statement confirmed the scuffle with de Kock and explained that it "was a result of circumstances which included taking of photographs and persistence to speak to me whilst receiving documents from staff members in order to attend the Standing Committee on Finance (SCOF)". 

WATCH: Journalist attacked by EFF's Floyd Shivambu

"Whilst I was in a hurry to attend the committee meeting, I accept that my impatience with the gentleman was inappropriate.

"The scuffle happened and was never an assault on the journalist or media freedom. I regret the incident and believe it should have been handled differently. I take full responsibility and apologise for engaging in a scuffle with a person I discovered after the incident is a journalist. I will write and emailed an official apology on the scuffle because I believe it was not supposed to happen."

Shivambu again reiterated that: "The EFF, which I represent in Parliament and deputy president of, upholds media freedom, and freedom of association. As a loyal member of the EFF, I fully uphold media freedom and freedom of association, and the scuffle was not meant to suppress these constitutional principles."

"I will not do media interviews concerning the incident because I believe there are important other issues to speak about in the public discourse, than a scuffle. Members of the media are humbly requested to use this statement as my official response and nothing else."

IOL

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