Johannesburg - Thousands of people who were expected to march to Luthuli House to demand that President Jacob Zuma and the party’s national executive committee step down have now been advised by the organisers to stay home on Monday due to safety concerns.
Organisers said threats had been made over the weekend and they feared there could be a “bloodbath” if protesters made their way to the ANC headquarters in the Johannesburg CBD.
“As the weekend progressed, we realised that these threats were serious. On Sunday we held a meeting to assess our readiness and got more reports about these threats. We expected thousands to come and asked ourselves how we were going to control the chaos that could happen when you have MKMVA (the MK Veterans’ Association) and thousands others that the leader of the ANCYL said they were coming to defend Luthuli House,” said one of the organisers Bonolo Ramokhele.
“We realised that there would be a possibility of a bloodbath, and we thought it would not be good for us as ANC to fight each other… we decided to tell comrades to stay at home because we cannot put our brothers and sisters in the line of fire.”
Leaders of the #OccupyLuthuliHouse movement would instead gather at nearby Beyers Naude Square and walk to Luthuli House to deliver a memorandum, he said.
“We are aware that self-proclaimed defenders of Luthuli House have the aid of state machinery to cause disruptions. We fail to understand why there would be such antagonism to a cause legitimised by South Africans,” the group said in a statement early on Monday.
“As organisers of the planned peaceful demonstration we will converge at Beyers Naude as planned and make way to Luthuli House to present our demands. Should we be attacked let it be, we will not retreat for ours is a just cause.”
However, the warning from organisers may have come too late as a crowd has already gathered outside Luthuli House. Many more people were getting off buses which were parked all over the precinct.
ANC supporters outside Luthuli House #OccupyLuthuliHouse @IOL @ReporterStar @TheStar_news pic.twitter.com/Do2zYzIvY4
— Luyolo Mkentane (@luyolomkentane) September 5, 2016
A large contingency of security personnel was also standing guard. Scores of MKMVA members in military clothes were stationed in front of the ANC HQ, with some standing guard across the street.
The security staff were joined by members of the SA Police Service (SAPS) as well as those from the Joburg Metro Police Department (JMPD).
Police officers also stood guard around Luthuli House, with some redirecting the peak-time traffic and cordoning off a section of Helen Joseph Street near one of the entrances of the party’s headquarters.
Several SAPS vehicles, including nyalas, were parked on the Pritchard Street, which runs on the left of Luthuli House. This included a trailer carrying barbed wire which was attached to a police nyala.
The commotion caught the attention of curious onlookers, with many stopping in their tracks to catch a glimpse of the gathering.
The ANC Women’s League said on Sunday that the campaign was driven by “cowards”.
“We feel that those are cowards. Those are not members of the ANC, they are afraid to participate in the structures of the ANC. They are pulling this cheap political stunt to show people that they can go and demand that certain things happen in the ANC,” ANCWL secretary-general Meokgo Matuba told journalists in Pretoria.
The Star and ANA