Malemas radicals storm Johannesburg legislature By AFP | Wednesday, July 23 2014 at 09:36 6 2 8 Font size: A+ | Reset | A- Julius Malema and his Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) party march to the Gauteng legislature during a protest over a ruling against the wearing of red overalls in the provincial legislature. PHOTO | AFP South African police threw stun grenades and fired rubber bullets when radical lawmakers stormed the provincial legislature in the countrys economic powerhouse Johannesburg Tuesday. Led by Julius Malema, who styles himself Commander in Chief of the Economic Freedom Fighters, some 2,000 EFF members protested the eviction of their representatives for wearing what they call workers clothes to legislative sessions. The outfits include red overalls, red hard hats and rubber gumboots for the men and maids uniforms for the women, while most members wear formal western dress. The EFF say this it to indicate their solidarity with South Africas poor who have not benefited from economic changes since the end of the racially-based apartheid system 20 years ago. Stun grenades Malema, who holds one of the 25 seats in the national parliament won by the EFF in May elections, led a group of the protesters through police lines into the Gauteng provincial legislature building, demanding a meeting with the speaker. When this was refused he and others sat in the foyer and refused to move until stun grenades were thrown and he was escorted out, the South African Press Association reported. Outside the building, police fired rubber bullets at demonstrators, the agency said. The EFF charges that the ruling African National Congress of President Jacob Zuma has betrayed the trust of poor black South Africans since taking power at the end of apartheid. The EFF was formed by Malema, a former ANC youth league leader who was expelled from the party for indiscipline, and who is known more for his luxurious lifestyle and designer clothes than for his working class roots.
Posted on: Wed, 23 Jul 2014 08:51:22 +0000
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