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Thousands of protesters assembled in Durban in KwaZulu-Natal at a DA-led demonstration to add their voices to the national call for President Jacob Zuma to step down.
A mix of races, ages and political affiliations gathered at the old circus site behind North Beach from early in the morning. This despite a counter-mobilisation campaign by the ANC and government during the course of the week, in the mainstream media and on social-media sites, aimed at stopping black people from participating and sowing disunity among the diverse range of organisations calling for Zuma’s removal.
The marchers did not enter Durban’s central business district as planned because of an ANC Youth League march, scheduled to take place in the eThekwini region, by Zuma loyalists. The anti-Zuma marchers carried placards and banners calling for him to step down and for South Africa to abandon the nuclear deal being planned by his administration.
They were addressed at the amphitheatre on the beachfront by civil society and political leaders, with DA Chief Whip John Steenhuisen and the party’s KwaZulu-Natal head, Zwakele Mncwango, calling on marchers to keep up the pressure to force Zuma out of office.
Jason Barber, a representative of the civic organisations involved in the march, said the ANC MPs in the National Assembly needed to vote with the opposition in the upcoming vote of no confidence in Zuma, or they would be dealt with by him.
The MPs, Barber said, needed to vote for Zuma to be removed because “if they don’t remove him, he will remove them”.
Mncwango said the march had brought together a diverse group of people who were all “fighting the same battle”.
“I am not here because I hate Zuma. I am here because I love South Africa,’’ he added.
“I don’t care about leaders, but if Pravin Gordhan is a leader who will help save South Africa, I will support him. South Africans have a choice: to protect Zuma or to protect South Africa.
“You can’t be in the middle. You are either on the side of South Africa or on the side of Zupta.”
Steenhuisen said Zuma had to be removed from office through a combination of the no confidence vote and pressure being brought on the ANC via mass action.
The message to Zuma, he said, was: “We will do whatever is necessary to stop you in your tracks.”
He called on the marchers to put pressure on all the MPs in the National Assembly to support the no confidence vote and “stop the madness that is President Jacob Zuma”.
Shortly after the DA protesters dispersed, a large group of youth league members from the ANC’s eThekwini meeting marched from where they had gathered outside the ANC offices in the city centre. They had been granted a permit to march in the city by the eThekwini Municipality and also held protests in Pietermaritzburg and Ballito, north of Durban.
Armed with sticks, sjamboks and other weapons, the Durban youth league marchers, who had gathered to defend Zuma, proceeded to Absa, where they held an impromptu rally outside the bank.
Gallery by Siyanda Mayeza:
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