They, at the protest, informed us that they were going to arrest me for convening an illegal protest – but they did not arrest me.
We had changed the route, which, strictly speaking, meant we were engaged in a separate protest than the one they had disallowed – so I think that could have been the reason they did not arrest me.
We marched from Grand Parade (a Capetonian land mark) to the Cape Town central police station on Thursday, the 7th of Feb. The protest was peaceful and had at least 200 participants.
One thing which stuck out was the variety of people present – a mix of TAC (treatment action campaign) activists, BWA (building women’s activism) activists, CNF (community networking forum) activists, other community based organisations, Zimbabwean immigrants, Congolese immigrants, Somali immigrants and UCT students.
It was really great to see such a mixture of different ages, sexes, religions, nationalities and races united in protest against police brutality. The TAC wrote up a memorandum, which they handed it over to the station commander. The protest was organised in a short space of time and was a success. We got allot of attention on the issue and we hope it will make a difference.
I have to thank Melissa Mc Walter and Emily Westerlund from UCT Passop, Regis Mtutu from TAC and Fredelene from TAC without whom we would have never been able to protest at such short notice.
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