Yesterday: The day that our Beloved Country cried, again

Last night I experienced an emotion that I hadn’t since the early 1990s. It was fear. A very specific fear. In 1991 I was working through the Church with youth in townships. On a particular Saturday, whilst working in war-torn Everton, we got wind that the security police was looking for us. We hid in a house as the security officials literally stood only a few feet away from where we were hiding. Although we did not get caught, the fear I experienced is difficult to describe as it’s not a fear for oneself but a fear that our people and their freedom and freedoms were being trampled on. Unless one has experienced such an intense emotion I doubt whether one would understand it. That same emotion of “special” fear came flooding back into my veins as police fully armed brushed against me on their way to EFF members to forcibly remove them from the National Assembly chamber. Right before my eyes I saw our beloved country return to South Africa under the height of the State of Emergency of old. Last night marked a turning point in our democracy. It pointed to how our Constitution was set aside and a dictatorial government ruled via the police. We have come full circle. Yesterday started off with the CBD of Cape Town being subjugated by heavy military and police vehicles and personnel present at every corner. Not because they were protecting citizens but because the government wanted the people to be quiet and compliant. Only the “authorised” (easily identified with ANC T-shirts) were allowed to speak and stand on the streets. Although barricades were set up for the public to observe proceedings from behind them, they were to do this quietly without expressing opposing opinions to that of the government’s. And so people like DA national spokesman, Marius Redelinghuys, DA Cape Metro Chairman, Shaun August and other DA members were sprayed by a water cannon, manhandled and arrested because they dared to peacefully protest against the energy crises. The police state is back in South Africa. This is not all. The dark old days of censorship and information control are back. Big brother government will decide what you can see, hear and say. When we walked into the chamber our cell phone signal was blocked. The DA, EFF and even the media present demanded to #BringBackOurSignal. Have the ANC learnt nothing from our history? You cannot block information! An attempt at gagging the media and the Opposition at its worst! The censorship didn’t stop there! The SABC cut off the audio of the television feed and when EFF members were being physically assaulted, the camera remained static on the Speaker and her NCOP counterpart. Unlike the dark days of apartheid, this time round technology allows one other means of getting this information out. Members filmed the defilement of the sanctity of Parliament. Within minutes this information was out in social media for the shocked world to see. We walked out as the presiding officers refused to admit that it was armed police officers that had invaded the sacred institution of Parliament. Not even in the height of apartheid did we ever see scenes such as these in our chamber. The ANC got what it wanted; a Parliament filled only with the ANC and other compliant opposition parties. Amazingly, the President didn’t apologise to the nation and ambassadors present for this behaviour but joined some of his lackey Ministers by chuckling at this high drama. Again, not even in the height of apartheid did one see National Party Prime Ministers or his cabinet publically laughing at the mayhem that they had caused. The ANC have no solutions to the problems of South Africa, except for a purely physical security response. This, and the actions of last night will chip away at the Party’s disintegrating hegemony as the people hang their heads in shame and simply stop voting for Zuma’s ANC which is no longer Mandela’s ANC. There is no turning back. It is clear. The ANC will stop at nothing to do what it has to do to retain power. If it means going back to the bad old days, then so be it! It started yesterday. Yesterday: 12 February 2015: Twenty Five years and one day after the release of Madiba with a vision that is the polar opposite to what the ANC has shown us yesterday. Yesterday was the day when once again South Africa, our beloved country, cried.