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SOUTH African President Jacob Zuma responded yesterday to the chaos that erupted during his annual State of the Nation address in parliament on Thursday in which fights broke out and security forces were called in to evict radical lawmakers who accuse him of corruption. “Our democracy is extraordinarily user-friendly, you can do whatever you want in South Africa. It’s a strength; at the same time, it’s a weakness,” Zuma told a breakfast session held at the foot of Cape Town’s Table Mountain. Without democracy, the opposition lawmakers would not have behaved the way they did, the president said.

But Thursday’s fighting was a landmark setback for Zuma and is likely to reignite speculation that he could be dumped as leader of the African National Congress, which brought the late liberation hero Nelson Mandela to power more than 20 years ago. The parliamentary showdown had been signalled ahead of time by Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) leader Julius Malema, a disgruntled former Zuma acolyte who has won support with his charge that black majority rule has benefited only government fat cats and cronies.

Forewarned, parliament put into action what was a clearly well-planned operation to limit the damage on a night usually reserved for red-carpet fashions.

When Malema made good on his threats to prevent Zuma from delivering his address until he answered questions about the $24 million of taxpayers’ money spent on “security upgrades” at the president’s private residence, the EFF members were evicted by a large force of security officials. The official television feed from parliament focused only on Speaker Baleke Mbete as fist fights erupted between EFF members and security officials.

The fighting was shown later through mobile phone videos — a minor victory for the opposition after Zuma’s speech had been delayed by protests over signals being cut off in parliament.

The EFF has just 25 lawmakers in the 400-seat national assembly, but has punched above its weight since contesting its first election last year, appearing to usurp the position of the much larger official opposition, the Democratic Alliance (DA). Shortly after the EFF’s eviction, the DA left after demanding to know whether the security officials who evicted the EFF were police or parliamentary officers.

At the heart of the upheaval is Zuma’s refusal to accept an ombudsman’s decision that he should repay some of the public money spent on “security items” such as a swimming pool, amphitheatre, cattle pen and chicken run at his rural home.

DA leader Helen Zille told several hundred supporters at a rally outside parliament that the party would pursue through the courts some 700 charges of “corruption, money laundering, and racketeering” against Zuma, which were controversially dropped. — AFP.