Mayhem has erupted at a meeting of the African Union’s parliament as legislators scuffled over a ballot box and a man appeared to aim a head-high kick at a female colleague amid shouts that there were people armed with guns in the room.
Numerous scuffles broke out on the floor of the meeting in Midrand, South Africa as a disagreement over the process to elect a new president for the AU’s legislative body boiled over.
The scenes were broadcast on South Africa’s national broadcaster SABC.
The Pan-African Parliament election was suspended while leaders worked out a way forward.
The election had already been postponed last Thursday when a staff member working at the venue near Johannesburg tested positive for coronavirus, and that meeting also revealed the tensions when South African legislator Julius Malema was heard threatening Malian colleague Ali Kone.
“I’ll kill you outside. Outside this room, I’ll kill you. I’ll kill you,” Mr Malema, a notoriously fiery leader of a far-left opposition party in South Africa, was heard saying while pointing his finger at Mr Kone.
It stems from a disagreement between rival blocs from western and southern Africa over whether the presidency should move around the various regions of Africa on a rotational basis.
The last two presidents of the Pan-African Parliament have been from west Africa and there has never been a president from the south in the short history of the parliament, which came into existence in 2004.
We do not expect elected leaders to behave like such horribles
As tempers again frayed on Monday, legislators wrestled over a white ballot box at the front of the room that was meant to hold the vote papers for the election.
Two women first fought over the box, trying to rip it out of each other’s hands, and other members of the parliament joined the tussle.
Then, an enraged male legislator ripped off his suit jacket and aimed a kick in the direction of female member Pemmy Majodina of South Africa.
The unidentified man said he was not trying to kick Ms Majodina but trying to knock a mobile phone out of the hand of another legislator recording the chaos.
“It’s quite a rough and chaotic situation now, and the matter is about the election and rotational principle,” Ms Majodina told SABC.
As the mayhem unfolded, other legislators shouted into their microphones that there were “armed men in the room” and called repeatedly for police and security. They claimed they were being threatened by a group of South Africans with guns, but Ms Majodina said there were no guns in the room.
African and international relations expert Charles Sinkala told SABC that the scenes, broadcast on television in South Africa, were embarrassing.
“We do not expect elected leaders to behave like such horribles,” he said. “Look at the footage… it’s adults who need adult supervision.”
