Apparently, any political address that contains the words ‘state of the’ is deemed to end in farcical, often violent scenes.

As we have seen with past State of the Nation (SONA) addresses, the EFF is happy to drag proceedings into the gutter, and that’s exactly where the State of the Province (SOPA) address ended up, too.

Earlier today, North West Premier Job Mokgoro’s SOPA address in the North West Provincial Legislature ended with a fight, believed to be between security and an EFF member.

Over to the Citizen:

Sopa commenced to a volatile start as the DA rose on a point of order to suggest Mokgoro had no authority to present Sopa. Speaker Rebecca Dantjie dismissed it and said the rules did not prohibit the premier from presenting.

This led to a few objections from DA and EFF. Following more disruptions, EFF member Papiki Babuile was ordered to leave the legislature by the speaker.

Nobody from the EFF goes peacefully into the night (or day), and there were soon punches being thrown outside the Legislature:

Tensions high outside the North West Provincial Legislature as security manhandled man believed to be EFF member #SABCNews @moeraneb14 @ikgajane pic.twitter.com/ppPSCIBhlT

— SentleengLehihi (@sentleL69) February 21, 2020

I think I even saw a flying knee in there.

To be fair, the second video below, shared by City Press, shows security forces being pretty heavy-handed with the EFF member:

RT @PolokoTau: #SOPANW an @EFFSouthAfrica member dragged out of the North West legislature chambers earlier…Speaker ordered two MPLs out saying they were causing disruption with their point of orders during Premier Mokgoro’s speech. pic.twitter.com/9mkGaK4HtJ

— City Press (@City_Press) February 21, 2020

This, right here, is the current state of discourse within South African politics.

Leaders who turn to violence at every opportunity, and then try and talk about the scourge of gender-based violence in the next breath.

There’s a correlation, plain for all to see, but they’ll never connect the dots.

[source:citizen]