Disruption, violence at talk - ANCYL condemned
2012-02-23 22:35
Johannesburg - The ANC condemned the conduct of ANCYL members who disrupted President Jacob Zuma's ANC centenary lecture in Cape Town on Thursday afternoon.
Several ANCYL members were thrown out of the Good Hope Centre by police and Zuma's bodyguards after they started to sing while Zuma was speaking, the SABC reported.
An SABC cameraman was hit while filming an anti-Zuma protest outside the venue.
Two people have were arrested following the violence, police said.
"We arrested two people. For now, it's charges of assault. The incident was put under control as quickly as it started," national police spokesperson Colonel Vish Naidoo said.
"There was a commotion which was noticed by our members who were deployed there. As they went to calm it down, they discovered that two people were injured, one of them a journalist."
In a statement, ANC spokesperson Jackson Mthembu said: "It is regrettable that an innocent journalist from SABC was injured during the scuffle that ensued when the disruptive elements were ejected from the lecture".
He said the ANC would investigate, and if any members were found responsible, they would face disciplinary action.
The Inkatha Freedom Party said the attack on the cameraman was "a terrible attack on press freedom".
"What happened reflects the lack of respect that the ANC has either inculcated or allowed to grow among its members," spokesperson and MP Mario Oriani-Ambrosini said in a statement.
Zuma apologised to lecture participants. While this was welcomed, Oriani-Ambrosini said it would not be sufficient without a firm commitment from the entire ANC leadership to change the way the ruling party dealt with the media.
Speaking in Johannesburg earlier in the day, Zuma said the ANCYL was a part of the ANC, and not a separate entity.
- SAPA