Street rampage follows judge's restriction on protests

Barely an hour after KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) High Court (Durban) Judge Peter Olsen ordered March and March, an anti- illegal immigrant organisation, to suspend demonstrations until 6 November, protesters caused chaos as they ran through the Durban city centre streets in peak traffic on Friday afternoon. Olsen granted interim relief in the police application against March and March, while stressing that he had made no finding of wrongdoing against the organisation’s founder Jacinta Ngobese-Zuma, notes TimesLIVE. After the elections, March and March will then face strict limits on marching hours and a ban on traditional weapons – including the knobkerries and sticks brandished during recent protests – until the matter returns to court on 18 January. After the ruling, attorney Xolani Zuma, cited as a respondent in the interdict application, briefed a gathering outside court. He told them members would be allowed one final walkabout after being briefed on the order. Members thereafter marched in the beachfront area, while large groups ran through the streets armed with sticks and other weapons in the Durban city centre, prompting a number of shops to close.

In his interim order, Olsen also banned night marches, wearing masks, engaging in violence, looting or burning houses. Once they resume, marches will be restricted to between 10am and 3pm. Zuma said efforts to ban the organisation from their democratic right failed. ‘What the police wanted was for the court to prohibit the organisation from ever marching again, but the court said no. However, you have to take a break until 6 November,’ said Zuma. Olsen issued a rule nisi, requiring the respondents to answer the state’s case, and set 18 January as a holding return date. He emphasised that the merits would be determined after the parties had an opportunity to put their evidence before the court, notes TimesLIVE. ‘I would like to make it absolutely clear to everybody, however, that the order I’m about to make does not decide that there has been any wrongdoing on the part of the first to seventh respondents.’ The decision followed exchanges with Advocate Sandile Kuboni, representing the respondents, over the connection between the movement’s organisers and unlawful conduct by people participating in marches. 

The judge referred to the organisation’s objectives concerning peaceful demonstrations, respect for the rule of law and community safety. According to TimesLIVE, he put it to counsel that organisers should consider stepping back from convening marches if they could not prevent participants from behaving unlawfully. The application arose from police allegations of escalating violence and intimidation associated with marches and an intelligence warning about a plan to burn down the refugee reception centre. The police papers acknowledge that marches were initially largely peaceful, that Ngobese-Zuma had spoken against killing and physical assaults, and that the detention of people from the camp in a murder investigation did not establish guilt.

Full TimesLIVE report