South Africa questions its democracy after parliament brawl
(Reuters) - "State of Chaos", was how one South African newspaper described the images of police and politicians trading blows at the opening of parliament, a damning assessment of the country's democracy twenty years after apartheid.
President Jacob Zuma walked down the red carpet outside parliament in Cape Town on Thursday evening as a brass band blasted out South Africa's national freedom anthem, Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika, and cannons fired off a 21-gun salute.
But the pomp and ceremony was short-lived.
Zuma had barely started his State of the Nation address inside parliament when lawmakers from the far-left Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) interrupted him to ask about longstanding allegations of corruption in a $23 million state-funded security upgrade to his rural home in Nkandla.
Quivering with anger, Speaker Baleka Mbete told the EFF and its firebrand leader Julius Malema to stop asking questions. When they refused, she ordered them to be removed, prompting a brawl in which several people were injured. ...
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