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

Bringbackthesignal

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.

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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.

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:

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

 

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.


 

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