Drew serves as member of the Honorable Civil Guard at opening of Parliament

This past Thursday I served as a member of the Honorable Civil Guard at the opening of the South African Parliament and the President’s State of the Nation address with one of my co-educators and several of my coworkers at the Cape Town Refugee Center. Our journey began on our train ride from Rondebosch to Central Cape Town. Molly, my co-educator also in the guard, and I take the train to work every day so it felt like a typical weekday when we first boarded the train and took our seats. Then some EFF supporters boarded the train at the next stop. EFF is short for Economic Freedom Fighters and is a political party focused on achieving more economic and social equality between different racial groups in South Africa. They also all wear bright red, head to toe, and sing and dance very frequently when representing their party. So the EFF supporters boarded the train, started singing (borderline yelling) surprisingly well-coordinated and harmonized songs and stomped and danced along. The train car shook with each downbeat. We had never been confident in the structural integrity of these cars before, with their ripped up seated and graffiti plastered windows, so this challenge to that integrity was slightly unwelcomed. The train starting moving and two police officers entered our car. Earlier that very same day we had learned that EFF Parliamentarians had been forcibly removed from Parliament’s chambers during last year’s State of the Nation address for continual disturbing the speech. I, therefore, was anticipating a squabble at minimum. Fortunately the police just wanted to make their presence known and just budged through the bulging red mass. It’s cool that democracy is so celebrated and utilized here. Voting is terrific (when people actually go vote) but here we have an entire political party celebrating their right to speak freely, associate freely, and challenge the social norms forcing niceties upon politics.  It was powerful even though I didn’t understand a word they were saying.

The EFF got off a stop before us and soon we were in Cape Town, making our way to City Hall to get our security clearance passes. The streets were divided by barbed wire barriers, carving the path that the Parliamentary and Presidential progressions would take. After the surprisingly quick security clearance at City Hall we were off to Parliament. Flashing our fancy new badges we passed through security checkpoints and metal detectors until we were brought to a room in which we would wait. They had told us that we were to arrive at 3pm for the 6pm procession so that we could rehearse our roles. We were brought to the room and presented with nicely packaged bags of food, which contained a main course of two hot dogs in a single bun, a fun cultural experience. After waiting for two hours we figured that rehearsal had been cancelled and they had forgotten to tell us. At 5:30pm we were presented with our uniforms: some white and orange polo shirts and a wide brimmed sunhat both with the Parliament and State of the Nation logos on them. We were also given small South African flags to hold. We threw in our costumes and were off to join the procession. We were soon brought to the side of a long red carpet leading to the building holding Parliament’s chambers. We were to stand on the side of the carpet, looking stern and serious, in our white and orange sun hats and tiny flags, as a form of civilian salute to the nation’s politicians.

EFF members at the State of the Nation Address

The first people we saw were the EFF Parliamentarians. Like their supporters they were dressed in bright red and were signing and dancing. They sang and danced all the way up the red carpet, up into Parliament, and did not stop until the Chairperson arrived in the chamber. The rest of the procession was a lot of people I didn’t recognize walking by. We saw several of President Zuma’s wives walk by which was fun as well as the leaders of all of the political parties (except for the ANC which is headed by Zuma). When it came to Zuma we were a bit disappointed when he opted to be driven up the red carpet in a large truck and just waved as he passed by.  Soon after we were promptly pushed out of Parliament with a quick thank you. We sat scratching our heads for a bit and then went home. It had been an interesting experience and one I definitely won’t regret. It’s not every day you get to be part of one of the most important speeches made a year in a nation, even if your part is wearing a funny hat and waving a tiny flag.