WATCH | Anti-violence protest at parliament erupts in violence
Image: Esa Alexander
Demonstrations about gender-based violence and farm murders at parliament in Cape Town on Saturday ended with the arrest of 18 protesters.
Witnesses said about 1,000 women gathered in Roeland Street at 11am, shortly after the first anniversary of the murder of University of Cape Town student Uyinene Mrwetyana.
“We had been warned that permission for the protest had been denied under lockdown regulations, but hundreds of women turned up anyway,” said one protester.
Image: Esa Alexander
Image: Esa Alexander
Image: Esa Alexander
Protester Sophia Farber-Daniel, 15, said the demonstrators who were arrested were kneeling on the street in the rain and holding up placards.
“They were thrown in the back of police vehicles, then the police started using their vehicles to try to herd the crowd back up the street,” she said.
Sophia said the crowd responded to the police by chanting “Justice and peace, f*** the police”, and covered many of their vehicles with posters.
One marcher said: “If you burn down schools, the police do nothing, but if you protest about gender-based violence or farm murders they respond like this.”
Western Cape police spokesperson Capt FC van Wyk said an investigation had been launched into cases of public violence, malicious damage to property, transgressions of the Disaster Management Act and an attempted murder.
"According to reports, a group of about 500 bikers and 400 people with posters participated in a gender-based violence and femicide protest," he said.
"The reports further indicate they blocked the road and damaged vehicles in the vicinity. Police members took action to disperse the crowd."
The arrested people are expected to appear in Cape Town Magistrates Court on Monday, said Van Wyk.
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