It’s not the several thousand people that the ANC Youth League was anticipating, but a couple of hundred demonstrators gathered in the centre of Johannesburg made their presence felt early on Tuesday morning.

Police were at times hard-pressed and ill-prepared to prevent splinter groups, rapidly circling the barricades thrown up around Luthuli House, from breaching their lines. Marshals just barely managed to keep control, though, preventing any blows from actually being exchanged.

Experimental jaunts around the city centre late on Monday night set the tone. Groups of a couple of hundred demonstrators would suddenly break away from their gathering point a block away from the ANC headquarters and move through surrounding streets at a jogging pace. Though they didn’t press the advantage when it came to it, they did prove that Luthuli House is a stronghold being protected from the (for now, small-ish) masses by police.

Even so, those who were gathering for the disciplinary hearing in the building itself would have noticed little other than the traffic disruption. In front of Luthuli House, behind the armoured vehicles and armoured riot police it remained quiet, the singing and chanting dampened by intervening buildings.

Police water cannons remained on standby nearby, but police kept the rubber bullets and teargas (which we are told is to hand) out of sight. DM

Photos: DAILY MAVERICK