The EFF says its leaders have been targeted without warrants of arrest, in a bid to stifle its protest against President Cyril Ramaphosa and the privatisation of Eskom.
“Police are targeting leaders of the EFF. We know what we are doing. We [are] not apologetic. We are not fearful,” EFF deputy president Floyd Shivambu has said.
The party’s Gauteng leadership on Monday said some of its leaders’ homes were raided that morning.
The protests are a high-stakes political game, mostly for the ANC and the EFF.
The success or failure of the EFF-led protests has huge implications for the ANC and the national government. President Ramaphosa is also watching the protests closely as one of the main demands is his removal from office, after the Phala Phala scandal.
The EFF, together with some opposition parties and the SA Federation of Trade Unions, is also protesting rampant load-shedding, economic hardship and growing unemployment.
If the protests are deemed a success, the EFF hopes to accrue political profit ahead of the 2024 general elections. If it fails to live up to its billing, the protest could dent the party’s image ahead of the general elections.
The government has invested heavily in ensuring that the protests do not get out of hand, deploying thousands of policemen and soldiers to guard hotspots and national key-points. It also wants to prove to foreign and local investors it is able to control these protests — especially after the 2021 riots that resulted in SA suffering billions in damages and hundreds dying.
The EFF said its leaders, who made inflammatory comments ahead of protest, have been targeted as part of the SAPS and state security plan to quell any possibility of violence.
EFF leader Julius Malema accused the police of stopping buses organised by the party, for supporters to come and join the march, from entering Pretoria.
“This is sabotage,” he told supporters at the beginning of a march from Pretoria CBD to the Union Buildings.
In the past 24 hours, 87 people have been arrested, tens of thousands of tyres seized, and some explosives have also been confiscated by police.
Of those arrested, 41 were in Gauteng, 29 in the North West and 15 in the Free State. There were also arrests in Mpumalanga and the Eastern Cape, the National Joint Operational and Intelligence Structure (Natjoints) said.
Police minister Bheki Cele said that most arrests were for arson, blocking roads and trying to prevent people from going to work.
Law enforcement agencies have also confiscated at least 24,300 tyres, which were “strategically placed for acts of criminality”, Natjoints reads.
A total 6,000 tyres were seized in the Western Cape, 4,500 in the Free State, 3,600 in Gauteng, 1,513 in the Eastern Cape, and some in other provinces.
Cele said some of those arrested were trampling on the roofs of parked cars.
Police had used minimum force and stun grenades to defuse the situation, he said.
The EFF released a statement on Monday morning, saying the protest was “proceeding successfully, peacefully and with the utmost discipline”.
“This morning, activists came out in their numbers and registered their dissatisfaction against the incompetent government of Cyril Ramaphosa, in the face of intimidation and violence by police and military personnel,” the statement read.
The party said that Monday was not a normal day as “taxi ranks, malls, and intersections, which would ordinarily be busy in the cities and townships, are empty. Many shops, businesses, petrol stations, car dealerships and courts are not operational as a result of the national shutdown.”
– With TimesLIVE
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