The Economic Freedom Fighters, the third largest political party in South Africa, plans to march on the 20th of March 2023, demanding the resignation of President Cyril Ramaphosa. They call the march the National Shutdown. National Shutdown in the sense that they demand that all activities and businesses be halted, subtly suggesting that everyone should stop what they would be doing to join the march.
Political parties in South Africa have responded differently to the EFF’s call, worthy to mention is the DA’s and ANC’s responses. The Democratic Alliance approached the court with an urgent application to halt the protest and declare it unlawful. However, the Gauteng High Court dismissed the application, but there still is an order against violence, blocking of roads or any unlawful conduct. It is sad, if not disappointing, that the Democratic Alliance, being the largest Opposition in South Africa, would want to deprive another opposition political party from exercising its constitutional right, and demand the resignation of its (DA) rival, the ANC President C. Ramaphosa.
Of huge concern as well is the response of the governing party to the Shutdown. The ANC leadership, although acknowledging the right of the EFF to protest, has shown that they do not appreciate the EFF, or maybe the way they are going about the protest, fair. But worrying is the President’s deployment of troops into the streets ahead of the Shutdown, in the name of protecting the public against possible violence by the protestors. That means that about 160 million rands has been budgeted to clamp down a protest that could have been avoided by injecting that money into projects that have stirred commotion at hand, for example the energy crisis. https://fb.watch/jn6d7Hcfhf
Although it is a right protected by the Constitution for citizens to protest, one aspect of the Shutdown puts its legality in question. The leader of the EFF has explained how they are going to block all the main roads, and that businesses should close, why, because everyone, according to the EFF, MUST SUPPORT their march. This sounds too coercive, especially to those that do not want to join the march. By closing roads, the march deprives people of their constitutional right to free movement. Forcing businesses to close is again forcing people to act against their will. Too ironic for a party that claims to be fighting for the same freedoms that they are depriving the people from, on a Human Rights Day. What then is to be expected of them (the EFF), in as far as respecting people’s rights and freedoms once they get into power, it baffles me.
