In the last week, over 200 protestors from South African social movements have been arrested. A peaceful candle-light procession has been met with stun grenades. Demonstrators have been assaulted, injured and demonised by the government.
Tomorrow groups from around the world will take action in protest. Protests are planned for Cape Town, Paris, London, Toronto and Buenos Aires.
It all started last week Wednesday with the arrest of nearly 80 Landless People's Movement and another 80 Soldiers Forum members in Johannesburg.
The Landless People's Movement members were arrested after a non-violent demonstration aimed at forcing Gauteng Premier Shilowa to stop the process of forced removals which has picked up pace in Johannesburg and surrounds in the run up to the WSSD. While in jail, a woman from the LPM had a miscarriage - pleas to the police to assist and allow the woman to receive medical attention went unheard.
The members of the Soldier's Forum, a group of ex-SANDF and ex-MK combatants, were arrested when trying to travel to Cape Town via train. After their arrest, they tried to stage a hunger strike in police cells, and were teargassed in detention. The Soldiers Forum members wanted to travel to Cape Town to protest about the way they have been left, without pension, without means of subsistence, since their retrenchment by the SANDF. While Apartheid Generals live off generous golden handshakes, the footsoldiers of the liberation war are left to starve.
Then, on Thursday, nearly 50 members of the LPM were arrested when they went to protest against the detention of their comrades. Those arrested include Ann Eveleth, media officer for the Landless People's Movement, who is now facing deportation from South Africa.
The climate of repression was confirmed on Saturday evening, when police fired without warning on a peaceful march which was heading from Wits University to John Vorster Square. The march, which was led by international human rights and anti-globalisation activists, was confronted by a cordon of police and police vehicles. Reports from figures such as Foreign Minister Zuma to the effect that marchers rushed the police, or deviated from an agreed route, are entirely mistaken - police acted without warning and without engaging the protestors in dialogue. Several activists were injured, and independent filmmaker Rehad Desai was arrested for 'obstructing' the police.
These events confirm the trend that social movements have observed, a trend of increasing criminalisation of protest. In Cape Town, in the months of June and July alone, the Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign came to know of 84 arrests, including the arrest of 44 Anti-Eviction Campaign members while demanding an appointment with Housing MEC Nomatyala Hangana.
In Johannesburg, the trial continues of the so-called 'Kensington 87', who were arrested and held for a week after protesting outside the house of Johannesburg Mayor Amos Masondo.
Tomorrow, on the Soldiers Forum comrades will appear in court. A High Court application to stop Ann Eveleth's deportation will also be heard. And around the world, groups will gather to protest the increasingly violent behaviour of the South Arican state
---ENDS
For info: Peter van Heusden 083 256 0457
Released by: Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign