Cape Town – The following areas will be affected by the Total Shutdown movement's protests on Wednesday – Bishop Lavis, Hanover Park, Bonteheuwel, Elsies River, Beacon Valley, Tafelsig and Khayelitsha – with picketing also set to take place in Paarl.
Intersections at major arterial roads – such as the M7, Jakes Gerwel, the Stellenbosch Arterial and Valhalla Drive – will be targeted from 5am to 10am.
One of the Total Shutdown organisers, Abdul Karriem Matthews, said they would "not condone any violence whatsoever, even when faced with police brutality", while all medical personnel would be allowed to enter and exit freely.
"We will remain peaceful under all circumstances. The Total Shutdown organisers will distance ourselves from any and all communities that deviate from the stance of peaceful protest action.
"Under no circumstances will we burn tyres, throw stones, damage property (private and/or public) and break down our own communities."
On August 8, pressure group Gatvol Capetonian held protests across the city, mainly over housing issues, which led to sporadic violence.
Speaking at a protest in Clarke Estate in Elsies River, where three children were killed last week by alleged gangsters, another of the organisers, Victor Altensteadt, said on Tuesday: "We don't really know how many people will be taking part. That will depend on how the particular organisations have mobilised their particular communities."
This shutdown is in response to the national, provincial and local governments refusing to accept and act on their demands since the Total Shutdown movement's march in September last year.
"They are going to have to listen to our demands. They have given us an ineffective Anti-Gang Unit and have deployed the SANDF without success on the Cape Flats. Our people are dying like flies; this should not be happening," Altensteadt said.
"This shutdown is just the beginning of more protratced shutdown actions. We will have rolling shutdowns should they not accede to our demands in the next seven days. We will mobilise all of our communities."
On social media, Russel Abrahams posted: "I support the demands 100% but I'm a bit confused. Is it a picket or a shutdown? Why do we shutdown/picket our own streets which could have little or no impact on the demands?"
Matthews posted in response on Facebook: "We picket first. If we have numbers, we shutdown. We do this to ensure that people realise that they have the power to back their streets and communities."
The Total Shutdown movement's full list of demands:
"Stop the gender based violence! Stop the crime in our communities! Shutdown your area on 25 September 2019!
"The current spate of gender based violence, especially on the Cape Flats, has managed to galvanise our communities across the race and class divide.
"The brutal murders of two university students, Uyinene Mrweteyana and Jesse Hess, ensured that Cape Town was flooded with protest actions for the bigger part of the last few weeks. Our people united. Yet, we need that same kind of unity to fight crime and poverty as well.
"As the Total Shutdown communities, we have spearheaded protests during the course of last year culminating in Hanover Park, Bonteheuwel, Kenisington/Factreton, Bishop Lavis, Nyanga, Langa as well as Ottery and Manenberg either having full-scale shutdowns or a limited shutdown in terms of a picket protest on 25 September, 2018.
"This resulted in the Minister of Police meeting with us on two occasions. We also had talks with the Human Rights Commission.
"Sadly, our protest actions had limited intervention from the state. Except for the establishment of the Anti-Gang Unit, with limited success, our demands remain unanswered.
"We, therefore extend an invitation to all fraternal organisations leading in their respective communities to attend a planning meeting on Wednesday, 18 September, 2019 at 18h30 at Voorspoed Primary school, c/o Lonedown and Greenturf roads.
"Our demands remain the same:
1. We call for an end to the deployment of the SANDF in our areas.
2. We call for the immediate deployment of permanent base camps in all the hot zones.
3. We call for the immediate deployment of tactical response units in all the hot zones.
4. We call for the immediate reallocation of SAPS from the rich suburbs and to be allocated to the hot zones.
5. We call for the immediate deployment of Law Enforcement and Metro Police to the hot zones.
6. We demand a Mass Public Works Programme at a living wage as unemployment, poverty and inequality creates the breeding ground for organised crime.
7. We call for the building of drug rehabilitation centres in our communities, especially for our youth from crippling substance abuse addiction.
8. We call for an army of social workers, more teachers, community sports and skills development centres.
9. We demand that the Western Cape be declared a disaster area and that all required human and material resources be utilised to better the lives of the working class.
10. We demand police protection for train commuters as well as police presence along taxi routes and reasurring saftey measures at bus and taxi ranks.
"Our communities are reeling under the crime and violence. We need to register our protest action as the only way in which government will pay attention to our dire plight.
"We have had meetings with them and as yet, nothing happened. A working class united can never be defeated!"