The art of protesting peacefully
2 suburbs appealed to authorities to take their concerns seriously, and not a burning tyre or bottle in sight
VOORTREKKER Road, adjacent to Kensington-Factreton, was shut down by peaceful protesters from 4pm to 10amlast Friday, as they demanded an end to the killings. “Make the injustice visible”, a call by the late Mahatma Gandhi, was applied by the community. National and local news outlets covered the protest that burst on to a major arterial road in the city.
Finally, the triumph of reason after the sin of silence and community apathy has been broken.
Peace is a divine state of harmony, characterised by the absence of violence or fear of violence. We do not know what it is like to experience peace, even in a constitutional democracy.
For years we have quietly appealed to authorities to take our concerns seriously.
Petitions, prayers, community marches, letters to our government, news articles and meetings with the politicians and police produced no visible changes.
Every year for the past 40 years, young people have been killed. Peace Ambassadors in Kensington-Factreton and other organisations have been working for peace inside the cauldron of war zones.
The KenFac Residents and Ratepayers Association have tried their best with limited resources to make a difference. Peace messages were constantly shared on a chat group managed by Kevin Alexander, one of the Peace Ambassadors.
The latest brazen killings and shooting of a 14-year-girl was the tipping point where a fairly conservative community decided that it was time to do something dramatic. For the first time in its history, the community took collective action and blocked off a major road.
Not one burning tyre, no stones or rocks thrown, no one injured, no looting, no shops or cars torched, no one robbed and no one assaulted. No violence was directed against the SAPS or law enforcement officers. When the protesters left there were no broken bottles, dirt or papers strewn about. And significantly, there were no officiating marshals to manage the huge crowd of protesters.
Also missing from the protest were singing, slogans or toyi-toying. However, one small group of marchers did call out “We want peace, we want peace”.
This is a promising start and the hope is that with future protest action we will get our voices united in song.
Bob Marley’s redemption song: “Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery, none but ourselves can free our minds”. Protest songs by Joan Baez and Billie Holiday. South African liberation history is filled with inspirational Struggle songs. Our community must learn to get into the rhythm of protest songs.
The protest action was peaceful and called for an end to violence and for more police resources.
The contradiction is that the protest was unlawful. The protest activity negatively affected thousands of workers who could not get to work on time. The road closure had economic consequences.
It was a classic act of civil disobedience from hundreds of residents of Kensington-Factreton who had the support of thousands of residents of the community.
The community had never seen so many police in response to community activity. A helicopter monitored the protesters and riot police vehicles were there as were law enforcement officers from the City of Cape Town.
Fadia Gamieldien, a protester and Peace Ambassador, stated that unless the community united against the violence, nothing was going to truly change.
Jodi-Ann Hartogh, one of the young people at the march, held a poster: “No more silence, stop the gun violence #SAVE – KENFAC”. Young kids shouted “we want peace” as we passed their school. One protester was alarmed that hundreds of police were mobilised for peaceful people. Where are they when we need them to deal with the violent ones who kill others? Diounn Mitchell, the co-ordinator of the Saint Luke’s Catholic Peace Ambassadors, was at the march with his network of ambassadors.
Beyond the serious messages and community outrage, there were many light moments. People were taking selfies, the jokers among us were making hilarious comments, an artist appeared but did not spray-paint walls. He had sheeting that he connected to two poles and he sprayed on to the sheeting “Hear our cries”.
Community members reconnected. Entrepreneurs arrived to sell their products. The mood was joyful and hopeful.
The protesters were greeted by cheers from people along the way to the police station where a group of five met with SAPS station commander Lt-Colonel Scanlen. A cavalcade with hooters blaring intermittently formed part of the escort.
SAPS must be praised for their leadership and recognition of the need to allow the protest message to be expressed.
They did not act provocatively or threaten the protesters or water cannon us. Civil disobedience is an important vehicle used to protest against injustice. A constitutional balance must be drawn between the objectives of the peaceful protesters and the need to respect the law.
The lesson from the march is that protest action can be peaceful and does not need to become violent. The protest model developed by our community last Friday is that violence is not inevitable. Violence is a choice.
The role of each member of the community present at the protest was crucial in not allowing hotheads to sabotage the message against violence.
Well done to the Kensington-Factreton community. Despite our pain and anger, we have shown South Africa how to protest peacefully.