Zuma’s IEC results acceptance speech marred by silent protest

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The women protesters who disrupted President Jacob Zuma’s local government elections results acceptance speech on Saturday evening had every right to express their freedom as citizens, African National Congress secretary general Gwede Mantashe said.

This came after a group of four young ladies clad in black, who were seated in the front row at the Electoral Commission of South Africa’s (IEC) national results centre in Pretoria, got up and stood facing the audience holding up placards in silent protest while Zuma spoke on stage.

The placards bore the words “Kanga”, “I am 1 in 3”, “10 years later”, and “Remember Khwezi”, an obvious reference to Zuma’s rape trial in 2006 and “Khwezi”, the woman who accused him of raping her at his home in Johannesburg in 2006 when she was wearing a Kanga. They were unceremoniously removed from the auditorium by Zuma’s VIP protection unit and Zuma himself soon left the building.

Mantashe said a protest was a protest, and the women had every right just like any other citizen to protest. “People are allowed to protest. No one stopped them. That shows to me the extent of freedom in South Africa, that you can protest even when the president speaks without being disturbed,” he said.

Mantashe said this act of humiliating Zuma in public by protesters who were manning the Economic Freedom Fighters’ desk at the results centre would have no material effect on negotiations between the two parties if they were to begin coalition talks.

Meanwhile The ANC Women’s League demanded answers from the IEC.

ANCWL president Bathabile Dlamini said no head of state “should be treated like this”.

“We can never allow that, the IEC must come clean on it because this was clearly choreographed. The way they [IEC] handled the whole thing was not professional… they were supposed to ask the president to sit down so that they can deal with the issue, apologise and then let him continue… that never happened. Why? Because they do not care about the president of the country.”

IEC chairman Glen Mashinini should apologise to Zuma, she insisted.

“We are not going back on that demand that he apologise to the president. He must explain to the country as to what happened. This is a clear abuse of the most important subject [of rape] in our country.”

Dlamini said the women were used by the EFF and were seen “running around, bringing tea and water” to EFF leaders at the IEC centre.

“It is such a pity that young women in the EFF are being used to advance and fight battles of patriarchy. We observed in the past few days how young women in the EFF were made to run around bringing water, making tea and none of them spoke or represented their party during its press conferences or in any election structures.”

She said Zuma the EFF was “dreaming” if it thought such incidents would result in Zuma’s removal from office.

In 2006, Zuma was acquitted of raping a then 31-year-old HIV-positive family friend at his home in Johannesburg. This silent protest continued for the duration of Zuma’s short speech, who remained oblivious to the messages being transmitted to viewers around the country while he spoke.

– African News Agency (ANA)