SA parliament, social media erupts as cellphone signal jammed, EFF evicted

South Africa’s parliament erupted into refrains of “Bring back the signal” in the lead up to President Jacob Zuma’s State of the Nation Address today.

The chant rose up among opposition MPs as it emerged that a cellphone jamming device was being used in the parliamentary district.

This was the first time such technology had been used in the more than 20 years since South Africa held its first fully democratic elections.

The rallying cry was also picked up on social media, particularly as the likes of media lawyer Dario Milo explained that the use of the device is unconstitutional.

If true that mobiles jammed to prevent tweeting, also effectively undermines right of media 2 apply 4 urgent court order – v late #SONA2015

— Dario Milo (@Dariomilo) February 12, 2015

The phrase #BringBackTheSignal was, for some time, the top trending phrase around the globe.

The vast majority of traffic on Twitter supportive of the appeal:

Haha “@PhutiTuba: #BRINGBACKTHESIGNAL BEFORE #BRINGBACKTHEMONEY ‘)”

— Tastebuds Master (@SeiphiChoene) February 12, 2015

Viva @judithfebruary viva! Thank you for your authentic voice of reason and constitutional sanity! #bringbackthesignal

— Carmel Rickard (@CarmelRickard) February 12, 2015

#BRINGBACKTHESIGNAL #SONA2015 Is the signal back? Baleka carrying on. Tell me somebody, just tell me please.

— DeviSankareeGovender (@Devi_SG) February 12, 2015

While many of the tweets were serious, others saw the lighter side of the situation.

 

LOL RT @barrybateman: Mbete says the issue of the scrambling has been “unscrambled”. #BringBackTheSignal

— Melanie Carmen (@MelanieCarmen) February 12, 2015

free the water! #bringBackTheSignal

— Satsiri Winberg (@SatsiriWinberg) February 12, 2015

WTF! No signal from #SONA2015. Getting right onto this. #BringBackTheSignal pic.twitter.com/GcpPeBPXw4

— ♬Francois☯ (@FrancoisCTown) February 12, 2015

Looking forward to seeing the Nando’s #BringBackTheSignal ad coming soon. #SONA2015 @NandosSA

— Marwaan Sasman (@MrPigeonPie) February 12, 2015

#BringBackTheSignal and fix your glasses #Baleka.

— Palesa Morudu (@palesamorudu) February 12, 2015

While the signal was eventually unscrambled, it was far from the last disruption of the night. Members of opposition party the Economic Freedom Fighters were violently ejected from parliament after demanding that President Zuma answer questions around the Public Protector Thuli Madonsela’s ruling that he should pay back the money spent on upgrades to his Nkandla homestead.

When the police entered the Chamber to remove members of the opposition pic.twitter.com/PEybc5gmbn

— Phumzile Van Damme (@zilevandamme) February 12, 2015