Barriers used to keep pro- and anti-Zuma protesters apart outside Parliament
8 August 2017
Cape Town - The intersection of Roeland and St Johns road in Cape Town formed a no man's land between thousands of ANC supporters and anti-Zuma protesters gathered outside Parliament for the #voteofnoconfidence in President Jacob Zuma on Tuesday.
"Zuma must fall" roared the emcees for the opposition who want Zuma to be voted out by the MPs inside, while across the divide ANC supporters bellowed "Long live President Zuma".
The intersection was barricaded with rows of police vehicles and armoured police trucks were parked next to the barricades.
Rows of security officials formed another line of defence while the opposing political views competed for airspace.
Another barricade distanced the groups from Parliament's perimeter fence in case there was a charge akin to the #Feesmustfall protests of 2015.
Standing on a truck earlier, DA leader Mmusi Maimane said Zuma must leave and go back to Nkandla because of all the problems he is causing South Africa.
"He is like Pick n Pay," shouted Maimane.
"He picks the wrong people and we pay," he said.
For Economic Freedom Fighters leader Julius Malema, letting Zuma go and rest in Nkandla was letting him off easily.
"He must go to jail," roared the former Zuma defender.
South African Federation of Trade Unions leader Zwelinzima Vavi told the thousands of anti-Zuma marchers that Zuma had "mortgaged South Africa for a plate of cheap curry".
When FF Plus MP Pieter Groenewald took the mic on the opposition side to shout that Zuma must go, there were mutters of "give us back our land" in the crowd.
African Christian Democratic Party leader Kenneth Meshoe said God was with the people and shouted that the people should be electing presidents, not Parliament.
Rights activist Kumi Naidoo said Zuma had three things to do on Tuesday: to make sure Deputy Minister of Education Mduduzi Manana was arrested after claims by a woman that he had hit her at Cubana in Johannesburg; to phone Russian President Vladimir Putin to tell him the nuclear deal is off, and to leave office
