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South African President's Speech Upstaged Again by Opposition Protest,
Walkout

Anita Powell

   JOHANNESBURG - South African President Cyril Ramaphosa barely got out
   the first sentence of his annual State of the Nation Address before the
   inevitable happened: commotion in the gallery, led by the Economic
   Freedom Fighters.

   The far-left political party -- easily identifiable in parliament by
   their resplendent red workmen's outfits -- had teased that they would
   raise a fuss over the nation's struggling electricity company and the
   member of Cabinet they feel is responsible. They also protested the
   attendance at the speech of South Africa's last apartheid president, FW
   De Klerk.

   That commotion -- which included yelling between party members and a
   Parliamentary officials -- sucked up the first 90 minutes of the
   proceedings, culminating in National Assembly speaker Thandi Modise
   ordering them to leave.

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