PARLIAMENT, March (ANA) - Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) deputy leader Floyd Shivambu on Tuesday, apologised for what he termed "a scuffle" with a journalist within the parliamentary grounds.
According to the Parliamentary Press Gallery Association, Shivambu assaulted Media24 reporter Adrian de Kock, when he sought to pose a question to him and take photographs.
The PGA said it was appalled at the incident and De Kock had every right to lay criminal charges against Shivambu.
Shivambu said De Kock was taking photographs of him and insisting on speaking to him while he was being handed documents relating to a meeting of Parliament's standing committee on finance. He did not realise that he was a journalist, he said.
"Whilst I was in a hurry to attend the committee meeting, I accept that my impatience with the gentleman was inappropriate," Shivambu added.
"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 email an official apology on the scuffle because I believe it was not supposed to happen."
Shivambu added, however, that he would not be giving interviews on the matter because he believed there were more important issues to discuss.
- African News Agency (ANA)
