Daily Sun (July 23 2014) - With Julius Malema in front, supporters in red clothes and red berets burst through the ring of police and amaberethe. The red wave rushed down the corridors, finally coming to a stop in front of the door at the end - the door to the legislature. Magwala Acheche, they sang. Sizobadubula, they sang.
Mandisa Mashego, EFF member of the Gauteng legislature, said their dress was not inappropriate.
"We will not surrender to the rules of the dress code. We don't know what that means," she said, while members sang, "Cowards must move back and brave ones must go inside" and "We will shoot them". Mashego said the EFF represented the entire working class, the poor, the unemployed, the unemployable and homeless people kicked out by the Red Ants.
"We are not here for fashion," she said."We are here to breathe life into the Freedom Charter. We are here for our policies." The march by about 2 000 EFF members started in De Villiers Street near Park Station in the Joburg CBD. The march resulted from the removal of EFF members from the provincial legislature on 1 July because they had broken the dress code. Julius Malema said he and his members were representing those who voted for them.
"No one is above the voters. We are here because they voted. The EFF should have access to the legislature," he said. "Removing us would be an illegal act. "Why do you bring police with guns here to come and shoot the people? Why deny us access?" Malema said the police could beat them up if they wanted to.
"We want to see amaberethe, who we see killing people every day, killing us today."
He said senior policemen asked them to behave in a disciplined manner and wait for the Speaker and a delegation, but they never came. "Now they want to remove us forcefully. No one wants to listen to us. Let the Speaker come so we can go home," he said. He said they wrote a letter to the ANC and asked for a meeting to discuss the issue but received no reply.
While Malema and about 50 EFF members were inside, police fired a stun grenade at another group of EFF members trying to get into the building.
These supporters ran away, throwing plastic bottles at the police.
Then an announcement was made from a truck asking those banging on the door to stop, as a meeting was taking place between EFF leader Malema and legislature officials.
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