MONDAY PROTEST
Blow to EFF’s Western Cape ‘shutdown’ after ANC and two other bodies pull out
At the eleventh hour, the ANC and two other organisations pulled out of participating in the EFF’s protest in Cape Town on Monday, saying they didn’t support calls for a shutdown or the EFF’s claims that it organised the event.
The EFF’s planned protest in Cape Town on Monday, 2 October, which the party has referred to as a “shutdown”, suffered a significant setback when three organisations withdrew their support.
The ANC in the Western Cape, as well as civic groups the South African National Civic Organisation and the People’s Movement for Change (PMC), announced at the eleventh hour that they would not participate in the protest for various reasons, including that it had been termed a “shutdown” and that the EFF had claimed to be leading the demonstration.
The organisations pulled out minutes before the multiparty press briefing was due to begin on Sunday to update the public about the protests.
“It was always our position that this was a multiparty march against the unlawful impoundment of taxis. It was never intended to be a shutdown led by one political party,” said ANC Western Cape provincial secretary Neville Delport.
“The mixed messages emanating as late as this morning in the media have convinced us that it would be unwise to participate. We are opposed to any form of shutdown.”
Delport was referring to an SABC interview with EFF Western Cape leader Unathi Ntame, in which he repeatedly referred to the demonstration as an EFF-led march.
“We support a peaceful resolution of the issues facing the minibus taxi industry. Finally, the ANC calls on our members not to participate, and [to] continue with their normal activities tomorrow,” Delport said.
Siya Nyeka from the PMC said the EFF was pushing for a shutdown, which the PMC did not support.
‘Political grandstanding’
“After this morning’s multiparty discussion and EFF insistence on pushing for a shutdown, the PMC decided to withdraw [from] the event on Monday. We do not support political grandstanding on such a serious matter of the plight of taxi owners and employees in this sector,” Nyeka said.
Another issue for the ANC was the more than 10km that protesters would have to walk from the Vangate Field to Cape Town’s Ndabeni Municipal Complex.
Read more in Daily Maverick: Taxi association distances itself from EFF’s planned Western Cape ‘shutdown’ on Monday
On posters calling for its “provincial shutdown”, the EFF wrote, “The days of the DA-led City of Cape Town draconian rule and racism are OVER.”
The demonstration will be about what the party calls “unjust taxi impoundments”, along with issues of service delivery, high unemployment, racism, high electricity tariffs and load shedding.
In calling the protest a shutdown, the EFF sent shivers down the spine of many Cape Town residents.
In August, the province experienced a taxi strike that left commuters stranded for days and prevented many learners from going to school. Five people died in violence associated with the strike.
Read more in Daily Maverick: Western Cape taxi strike updates
The EFF’s Ntame accused the ANC of dishonesty over its reason for pulling out from the protest.
“They received an instruction to pull out,” he said. “Now they are looking for any reason to justify the instruction they were given. The reason we say it’s an EFF march is because it is the EFF that applied for a permit at the City of Cape Town to demonstrate to Ndabeni.”
He said all was in order for Monday and they would not be deterred by the withdrawal of the organisations. It is believed that the party’s national secretary-general, Marshall Dlamini, will take part in the protest.
Daily Maverick has established that taxi operators who want to join the protest have been informed that they can start with normal operations and after 8am make their way to the protest starting point.
Santaco Western Cape chairperson Mandla Hermanus reiterated that the taxi organisation was not connected with the protest, but some of its operators would participate.
Among the conditions of the taxi agreement signed by Santaco and local government authorities after the August strike is that if Santaco wanted to strike, it would give at least 36 hours’ notice.
“We have various political party affiliations within Santaco and as such, some of our members will be participating in a peaceful march, but our operations will continue as normal,” Hermanus said. DM
EFF mustn’t talk about racism as they are the biggest racists. Always talking about color and inciting violence. They have done nothing so far to contribute to upgrading country.
The EFF, or BET (black ET) as I refer to him has a sole purpose in this country and it is to destabilize anything that remotely looks like progress. destabilize, transitive verb. To upset the stability or smooth functioning of. To undermine the power of (a government or leader) by subversive or terrorist acts. By progress I mean getting the rand value back to where it was before it got purposely run into the ground in the name of freedom. I just wish they can see that the 11 mil European nation they were fighting have left the country and the 3.5 mil that are left don’t have the money to leave this hellhole.
And they still haven’t been nailed for the VBS money they stole.
“Well, if crime fighters fight crime and fire fighters fight fire, what do freedom fighters fight? They never mention that part to us, do they?” George Carlin.
The Economic Freedom Fighters fight to free the economy, so that it can sail off into the sunset, never to be seen again. You know, like Zimbabwe.
EFF the firelighters under the instruction of their icon Winnie Mandele – just give us matches. Any suspiscous fires anywhere must be investigated.
The EFF/ANC Dr engineer councillor in Gauteng and Al Jamah Mayor does not have any solutions to the water
shedding , load
shedding, potholed roads, buildings exploding in fires, schools where children are killed and dagga koekies are sold to children, roads exploding with gas
leaks under the roads, hospitals not having water, old age homes not having water, illegal electricity connections and vandalism of electricity infrastructure is the norm, schools not having water, illegal mining,etc, etc so they must try to take away attention from the destroyed Gauteng under their corrupt leadership (where they have even had to vacate their council premises because of collapse of infrastructure) So they no have so much time available that they can come to the Western Cape and try to create blame in the Western Cape in the face of excellently managed city and province. Denise Smit
Sums it up nicely.
And yet they both continue to hoover up the votes of the majority of Gautengers. What in the world could be wrong with us?
No action, nobody is congregating at Vangate Field as of 09:20 today.
Well surely that’s the DA’s fault for not organizing buses! Oh no, they burnt all those. Or was it Apartheid?
The EFF is a waning force on SA’s political stage, so it is desperate to manufacture relevance for itself by any and all available means, including blatant pre-election theatrics, ill-disguised as principled concern.
This shut-down march will be yet another big EFF flop—except for the damage to property that they will no doubt cause, since “peaceful” means something rather different in EFFese.
“In calling the protest a shutdown, the EFF sent shivers down the spine of many Cape Town residents.” Really? Can’t say I noticed.
Shivers of laughter probably.
(BTW are you one of the chickens from Hermanus? I always meant to ask. Or one of the chicken brothers? )
Epic F’ing Fail.
Losers one and all.
In calling the protest a shutdown, the EFF sent shivers down the spine of many Cape Town residents.
Unsure if this comment was as a result of a survey or just trying to make something sensational. Please Daily Maverick lift the journalism bar this in not the Sun.
The ANC in the Cape would have exposed its lack of support. And 10 kms is a long march even in the cause of those taxi brothers who weren’t going either .
Julius Melanoma “we will March to CT”
Gen Z EFF members “Er…. March? That sounds like too much work”
Crickets……
Why didnt march when the taxi strike caused chaos for the school kids and working community.