Thousands of protesters are expected to take to the Cape Town CBD on Tuesday, ahead of the scheduled motion of no confidence against President Jacob Zuma.
The City of Cape Town has given the go-ahead to three groups, each of which applied for up to 10‚000 participants.
The organisers include more than 30 civil society groups‚ faith-based movements and political parties.
The Unite Behind coalition will march on Monday from Keizersgracht Street to Parliament‚ where the group will be addressed by former deputy finance minister Mcebisi Jonas.
The coalition was born out of the Cape Town memorial for struggle icon Ahmed Kathrada. It hopes that National Assembly Speaker Baleka Mbete will grant a secret ballot on the motion to be tabled in Parliament on Tuesday.
Parliament had previously said Mbete would make the decision before August 3 but she has played her cards close to her chest.
In a statement released on Wednesday‚ Unite Behind said it regarded the ending of the Zuma presidency as "necessary".
"We must compel the ANC to recall President Zuma.… This is a society where people [need to] begin to share in the country’s wealth. This is our struggle now and after Zuma goes."
On Tuesday‚ two more marches are expected take place that have the potential for violent clashes. The Multi-Party Notice‚ made up of opposition parties‚ including the EFF and the DA‚ has received a permit for 10‚000‚ as has the ANC Dullah Omar region.
It will equal the biggest protest ever approved by the city since the Muslim Judicial Council was granted permission for 20‚000 people to protest in August 2014.
City spokesperson Hayley van der Woude said police would lead special security arrangements on the day‚ but the city’s enforcement agencies would be on standby.
On Monday civic organisation Future SA called for a national day of no confidence in the president and encouraged South Africans to "take to the streets" between 12pm and 2pm on Tuesday.
People have also been asked to support the motion against the president on Tuesday by driving with their headlights on.
But the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation (CSVR) said next week’s planned marches were unlikely to influence how MPs voted in the motion of no confidence.
The centre’s executive director, Nomfundo Mogapi, said she was concerned that Tuesday’s marches would lead to violence.
"If you have these two opposing groups there‚ the likelihood of this turning into violence is our biggest concern. The concern is not whether this [march] will influence the decision or not‚ because we know that when the governing party has made a decision [it does not often change]‚" Mogapi said.
"We’ve been seeing this trend of what we call collective violence‚ where we find that a group of people will go and protest for a genuine need or concern‚ but what usually happens is that it ends up becoming violent. Protest‚ as a language for being heard in the current dispensation‚ is not really the best vehicle. What we have found is that the majority of protests are becoming more and more violent."
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