Protest chaos threatens to disrupt EFF’s Pretoria conference

Violence erupted at the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) Tshwane Regional Conference yesterday as EFF supporters blocked the main gate of the Tshwane Metro Police Department (TMPD).

Guns were drawn and tyres burnt as delegates protested against the candidates representing the 15 Pretoria branches.

The EFF supporters claimed that they did not know the candidates and they were not the ones they had voted for to represent them. They demanded that these candidates be removed and the original candidates reinstated.

“They said these delegates where not chosen by the people and that they did not know them. There was some fighting and I heard some people drew guns on each other, but I did not see it,” an EFF member told The Citizen.

“They are burning tyres and drawing guns on each other,” she said.

Photographers were warned not to take pictures of the scores of EFF supporters blocking the gate of the TMPD.

The scene drew a heavy police presence, with at least 10 TMPD cars and scores of Metro police officers standing outside the gates.

The member added that those who wished to collapse the conference were wrong, and that despite the unrest, it would go ahead.

“We are going ahead and everything is back to normal. This conference will not collapse,” she said.

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