About 50 people joined a march organised by the Unemployed People's Movement (UPM), staff and students of Rhodes University to show solidarity with Durban-based rights group Abahlali baseMjondolo.
About 50 people joined a march organised by the Unemployed People's Movement (UPM), staff and students of Rhodes University to show solidarity with Durban-based rights group Abahlali baseMjondolo.
Intended to raise awareness about human rights and social injustices, the theme of the march was 'Marikana continues'.
This was a reference to recent forceful police action in Cato Crest informal settlement in Durban.
The main speaker was Right2Know representative Thembani Onceya, focused most of his address on social injustices in the democratic South Africa.
At 3pm on Wednesday 30 October, Onceya and other speakers addressed the small crowd about the events that took place in Cato Crest shack settlement, and similar incidents in Grahamstown.
Onceya spoke about the Marikana massacre on 16 August 2012 and rape and murder cases in Grahamstown. He spoke about recent challenges faced by many poor South African people in places like Cato Crest, with reports of police brutality.
"Now, a year later, this same violence is being felt with extreme effect in the Cato Crest shack settlement in Durban, where three grassroots activists have been assassinated because of their political work with Abahlali baseMjondolo (Shack Dwellers Movement)," reads a statement issued by the UPM. In the statement the organisation also claims that there has been no coverage of these recent events in the mainstream South African media and the violence taking place in the area remains unreported.
For this reason, the Unemployed People’s Movement (UPM), together with Rhodes staff and students, organised the march in solidarity with Abahlali baseMjondolo.
The march was intended to raise awareness that these are not isolated events, but a continuous struggle that ordinary people face across South Africa, "every day".
The small group gathered at the Cathedral before marching to the police station, where the UPM, together with Rhodes University representatives, handed over a memorandum against state repression and police brutality.
All the marchers wore green armbands to show their solidarity with those who had suffered the extreme violence of state authoritarianism.
