Press Statement

12 noon

30th August 2007

Anti-Repression protest outside Parliament, Cape Town, currently being repressed by the police!

About one hundred activists from groups like Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign, Zille Rain Heights and ILRIG were refused permission by the police to march on Parliament in a protest against police repression.

The protestors have demanded their rights to Freedom of Expression as guaranteed by our constitution and are currently standing their ground outside Parliament, although they are being harassed and threatened by the police.

The day was convened by t he Freedom of Expression Network (FXN) as a protest against attempts to intimidate, harass, victimise, unlawfully arrest and torture protesters.

According to the Freedom of Expression Institute, today has been chosen as Anti-Repression Day in commemoration of the late Teboho Mkhonza who was shot dead at age 17 during police violence at a protest in Harrismith, Ntabazwe in 2004: “Yet whether it is in Sebokeng or Soweto, Mamelodi or Middleburg, Kennedy Road (Durban) or Khayelitsha, people of South Africa are facing greater and greater threats as they attempt to exercise their basic right to speak out.”

For comment please call Mzi or Nopasika on 073 7028402