A glimpse into a horrific future scenario

Cape Town - The unprecedented series of events that occurred before, during and even after Jacob Zuma’s State of the Nation address have rightfully left South Africans – and perhaps many overseas – just that bit more uneasy about the country’s nascent democracy.

While violence in a parliamentary chamber is hardly unique to South Africa – it has happened in Turkey, Taiwan and the Ukraine among others – the sight of police officers ominously armed and plain-clothed was a flash-forward moment into what the country could become if the dangerous precedents of the now are not vigorously opposed.

From the arrests of senior DA office bearers on Adderley Street just hours before to the jamming of cellphone signals and politically-inspired editing of the broadcast visuals, South Africa witnessed the re-emergence of political intolerance and autocratic tendencies.