South African president faces protests at parliament

“This is an opportunity for us as members of the public to voice our dissatisfaction with President Zuma”, said entrepreneur Christelle Scheepers, who helped organise the march.

Thousands of protestors representing three organisations had been granted permission to protest in Cape Town’s CBD on Thursday. The central bank has forecast growth to reach only 0.9 percent this year.

Maimane said Zuma failed to mention new measures to grow the economy, calling the cost-cutting initiatives announced by Zuma, which included limiting worldwide travel and lavish state-funded junkets and banquets, “weak”.

As journalists scrambled to get comment from party leaders after the speech, there were two political parties missing from the red carpet – the EFF and the Congress of the People (Cope).

After months of denying any wrongdoing, Zuma said last week that he would pay back money spent on improvements that did not relate to security and asked the auditor general and finance minister to decide an appropriate figure.

After 45 minutes of interruptions and chaos, the Speaker of the South African National Assembly, Baleka Mbete, laid down the rules in a bid to stop interruptions in the President’s State of the Nation Address.

“We needed a “shock and awe” speech to boost economic growth and create jobs”, David Maynier, finance spokesman for the main opposition party, the Democratic Alliance, said by text message.

In wake of the economic slowdown the opposition has flaked Zuma’s leadership in a hope to remove him from power.

“Our country seems to be at risk of losing its investment grade status from ratings agencies”.

Meanwhile an SABC soccer commentator Thomas Mlambo using soccer terminology ‏@thomasmlambo said, “Ball is back in play #SONA2016 President Zuma is in possession”.

But people were most angry about the economic situation, with unemployment spiralling and South Africa’s currency – the Rand – crashing to historic lows.

Public order police were forced to fire stun grenades at protestors in Cape Town’s CBD while dignitaries, ministers and VIPs arrived at Parliament to listen to President Jacob Zuma’s State of the Nation Address (Sona).

He bowed to the pressure by dismissing Van Rooyen four days later, and appointing the highly regarded Pravin Gordhan to the post.

After the situation calmed down, Zuma continued to deliver his speech in which he promised to cut government expenditure, especially on officials travelling on overseas trips.

“It was typical and a familiar Zuma speech delivered in the usual tiresome way and repeating much of the talking points from previous years…”