Twenty-five years ago a great South African finally walked free after 27 years imprisonment. As Parliament convened on Thursday evening for the State of the Nation Address (Sona) it was with this historic backdrop and we hoped it was being watched over by Tata Madiba, Walter and Albertina Sisulu.

We are a people that often become nostalgic, we remind ourselves of the moments we as South Africans felt great. We hold on to those moments because we wish to celebrate, honour and mark our history.

As we watched the theatrics at the Sona, we would know that the City of Cape Town was under lockdown, that the Western Cape spokesperson for the Democratic Alliance (DA), Marius Redelinghuys, had been detained and taken to the Woodstock Police Station, and that water cannons had been used on the DA and Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) supporters at the Grand Parade.

In that moment we knew that we were not living in a South Africa that was being guided by the spirit of Madiba or Sisulu. We were alone; no saviour was going to change what we were reading, seeing and experiencing. This was our reality and Orwell’s ‘boot’ was being exercised expertly and continuously on our country.

Today, we must hang our heads in shame. Thursday night was the night the music died. Theatrics and red carpets were all the rage for our national news stations but this is a nation with a dark cloud hanging over it. That’s the only conclusion to be drawn by this year’s Sona.

We watched as the Sona started with the farce of a fashion parade on the red carpet, soon followed by the realisation that someone had jammed the cellphone signal in the House. The news channels did not immediately bring this news to us; it came from brave journalists who, on a daily basis, bring us information via Twitter and other social media platforms.

The power that enabled the Arab Spring to take root was being undermined by our very own democratic Parliament. The tool of innovation that allows the voiceless to challenge the powerful was being jammed in Parliament, of all places. This was done knowingly and intentionally and in violation of our constitutional rights.

This was done while Parliament was to host the Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court (and other Justices) as well as a number of other members of the judiciary. The law was blatantly and flagrantly trampled on and by Parliament itself; a Parliament that did not uphold or protect the Constitution of South Africa but instead spat on it with contempt.

When the speaker started the session, members of parliament swiftly raised the issue with Speaker Baleka Mbete who fumbled when trying to deal with it. After a 20-minute delay, the secretary of parliament unscrambled the signal, it would seem.

Sadly no real answers will given as to who did it, on whose authority it was done and why the state thought it could break the law. Our Parliament is not a place for answers, it is not a place for debate but it has slid into simply being a place for theatrics, red carpets, rubber-stamping and more recently, outrage.

President Jacob Zuma was welcomed into the House by standing, cheering and clapping ANC MPs, a praise singer and was invited by the speaker to address the joint sitting.

This was not to last, as the EFF proceeded, as promised, to raise “points of privilege” and wanted to know when the president would #PayBackTheMoney and what mechanism would he prefer, an e-wallet perhaps?

We saw Julius Malema and Floyd Shivambu of the EFF being forcefully removed by what appeared to be SAPS members, who report to the executive, and not by parliamentary security personnel. We saw damage to Parliament take place before us even though the Parliamentary television feed did not provide us with the full picture. Instead we got a close up of the speaker of Parliament and the chairperson of the National Council of Provinces.

(Watch the Daily Maverick video of the violent extraction of the EFF MPs here.)

The DA proceeded to raise concerns about this blatant breach of our separation of powers and the speaker refused to engage meaningfully, resulting in the DA walking out of the House.

All of this happened in our Parliament on Thursday evening. All of this happened. After all the ‘entertainment’, the president was invited by the speaker to return to the podium and address the nation.

Did the president reassure us that we lived in a vibrant democracy? Did he provide us with the comfort of knowing we are in the hands of a governing party that is up to the task despite the shenanigans of the day? Sadly, I think we all know and feel the pain of the answers to those questions.

We did not receive that re-assurance from President Zuma. What we received was prepared speech, prepared pauses and prepared applause.

The fact that the music had died would be of no relevance or consequence. The fact that SAPS had manhandled two MPs and resulted in the EFF caucus leaving the House would not mater. The fact that a DA MP was in Woodstock Police Station would not matter either. The fact that the DA walked out would not matter.

More importantly the fact that we would sit on the sidelines in our homes watching this farce would also not matter.

As we sit festering in our frustration, I leave you with the thoughts of Orwell as the events of Thursday were reminiscent of a police state clamping down on our voices and the space for those voices.

It was reminiscent of themes from Animal Farm and 1984. As Orwell wrote in 1984: “Now I will tell you the answer to my question. It is this. The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not interested in the good of others; we are interested solely in power, pure power. … One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship. The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now you begin to understand me.” DM