By UMR HURTER
OVER 150 people gathered in Unity Park in the southern Cape town of George demanding human rights for all.
The group marched to the local municipality in York Street on Saturday December 2 and handed over a memorandum addressed to the town’s mayor and included a petition.
While the march was held in solidarity with the people of Palestine and in condemnation of the ongoing genocide in Gaza, the overarching theme was to create awareness in the region about human rights abuses in general.
A week earlier, on November 25, a picket protest was held in the town to inform the community of the upcoming human rights march.
According to one of the organisers, Zaahirah Kozain, the motive behind the march was to inform and educate the broader community of George about the true state of affairs in Palestine.
‘The reason this march was held was to not only create awareness but to also amplify the need for our government to cease relations with Israel and to ultimately demand a permanent ceasefire to halt the genocide of our Palestinian brothers, sisters and children. We are currently planning to also mobilise in Paarl, Wellington, Worcester, Franschhoek, Mossel Bay, Oudtshoorn and towns on the West Coast,’ added Kozain, who lives in Paarl.
Pickets protests have been planned for Saturday December 16 in Paarl and on December 23 in Franschhoek.
Widaat Salie, the vice-chairperson of the organising committee, said the march had received strong support from various groups, including the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Al Jama-ah, Souther Cape Islamic Society, Mossel Bay Islamic Society, Pagad, ANC and the EFF.
After the opening du’a (prayer) by Muaaz Mohamed, community leaders representing churches, NGOs and political parties addressed the event. They included Ras Hein Scheepers of the Reform the United Nations Now (Runn) movement, Johan van der Merwe a retired member of the Dutch Reformed Church, EFF member of Parliament, Virgil Gericke, spiritualist Delene Pillay, Deputy Chancellor of the Anglican Diocese of George, Britney Sauer, Elsa Bernado, a historic religions analyst, Ayesha Allie-Patel from Al Jama-ah, Shaikh Hassan Dahir of the George CBD mosque and ANC member of Parliament, Faiez Jacobs.
Waheeda Shaik, who served on the organising committee for the November 25 picket as well as the December 2 march, both events were incident-free and no negativity towards the participants was encountered.
‘Community members were curious. They wanted to know a little more, and we were actually prepared for this. We handed out little pamphlets with frequently asked questions and a QR code that could be scanned for answers that were short, easy to understand, and this hopefully sparked their interest further. There was a small element of indifference but that did not dampen the spirit in any way,’ Shaik added.
The march ended at the Mayor’s office where a memorandum was handed over. The memorandum consisted of a petition started by Waheeda Shaik to stand in unity with Palestine and to restore basic human rights.
Shaik was also responsible for starting the petition to stand in in unity with Palestine and to restore basic human rights.
The petition called upon the office of the mayors of George and the Garden Route District Municipality to take immediate and decisive action to address the issue and to pledge unequivocal solidarity with the people of Palestine. The petition also requested the municipalities to approach both the national and Western Cape provincial government to do the same.
Mossel Bay December 15 picket
The awareness campaign continues on December 15 with a picket in Mossel Bay. The convenor, Ebrahim Jacobs, told Muslim Views the response to his invitation to all communities to participate has received a positive response.
‘This is not a religious event but rather an event where all communities can unite in solidarity standing up for human rights for all. We should stand united in our humanity for each other, transcending religion and politics. At this stage we do not have a march planned for Mossel Bay. Seeing it is the December holidays, we do not intend to disturb or disrupt the festive-goers. This will, however, not deter us from our cause and we will have a proper march in the new year, Insha’Allah.’
