Human Rights Day irony in Cape Town

What an irony! On Human Rights Day, demostrators in Cape Town were denied their right to proceed with a march in the city, a right guaranteed by the South African Constitution and given legislative effect through the Regulation of Gatherings Act (RGA).

It is not an unusual occurrence for arrogant local authorities to "refuse to give permission" to marchers based on no reason in particular. Of course, according to the law, they do not have the right to "give permission"; "permission" is not even mentioned in the RGA.

But on the streets, it is not the constitution and the law that triumph, it is raw force. When I, representing the Freedom of Expression, spoke to the policeperson in charge and attempted to explain the constitution and the RGA to her, her response was, simply: "Let them just try me! I will arrest them all."

Just another day in South Africa...

Human Rights Day

"My mother was a kitchen girl;
And my father was a garden boy;
That's why, I'm a socialist, I'm a socialist, I'm a socialist!"

The song blared from loudspeakers on a truck as protestors started a march through the streets of Johannesburg. More than a thousand protestors toyi-toyied through the city today to celebrate / commemmorate Human Rights Day. The march was organised by the Social Movements Indaba (SMI), which also organised actions in Durban and Cape Town.

It was an emotional and heartwarming demonstration of people's being able to take over the streets. It was also a sad reflection of the fact that, 13 years after democracy finally came to South Africa, millions of people still suffer under the yoke of poverty, lack basic services like water and electricity and fall as victims to Aids.

Speeches at the end of the march included those from various social movements dealing with privatisation, access to water, fighting evictions, landlessness, etc. There were also speakers from the Anti-War Coalition, Palestine Solidarity Committee and the Save Zimbabwe Campaign.

Motley bunch confronts the SABC

Today, a strange mixture of people assembled, at the behest of the Freedom of Expression Institute, in front of the headquarters of the South African Broadcasting Corporation to protest the SABC's lack of movement towards becoming a true public broadcaster.

In an amazing show of covergence of forces on the issue, members of the Socialist Party of Azania, Pan Africanist Congress, Anti-Privatisation Forum, a hawkers' organisation, the Traditional Healers' Organisation, Muslim Youth Movement, Palestine Solidarity Committee, a Gauteng Council member of the South African Jewish Board of Deputies (who was also billed to speak but left early for another appointment) and various other groups took over the streets, ululated and toyi-toyied in their opposition to the SABC.

"We are going to kick Snuki out of here," demonstrators chanted, referring to the SABC's head of news, who has been implicated in the recent blacklisting scandal that confronted the Corporation.

For more information about the campaign to transform the SABC, visit the website of the Freedom of Expression Institute.