"Insurgent Citizens"
Reflections on protest in democratic South Africa
Invitation to the Exhibition Opening
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Sharing experiences with protesting
Despite the right to assemble and protest being guaranteed in the South African Constitution, even peaceful protesters often have to contend with a questionable response from the police. On the opening night, Zamantungwa Khumalo, an attorney at the Socio-Economic Rights Institute (SERI), spoke to her organisation's work especially in rural areas as well. She described a recent case of police violence and arbitrary detentions suffered for weeks by a group of peaceful women protesters in Colenso, KwaZulu-Natal.
Commemorating the Marikana protest and the police massacre in 2012
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Urgent need for police reform
Allan Ngari, a Senior Researcher at the Institute for Security Studies (ISS), gave some insights into a workshop just concluded in South Africa as well, on the dire need for police reform. Non Government Organisations and other institutions are joining forces towards achieving this, urgently, and the Justice and Violence Prevention project at the ISS, also a partner of the Hanns Seidel Foundation, is very actively involved in this work.
Part of the exhibition in the foyer of the Nelson Mandela Foundation
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Trauma - many protest leaders remain affected
Simamkele Dlakavu, who is well-known as a leader of the #FeesMustFall movement and one of the participants in the memorable #RememberKhwezi protest during a televised speech by former president Jacob Zuma in August 2016, shared how protests are often unduly romanticised. She described some of the very painful personal experiences of trauma and trying to deal with it which many protesters are still deeply affected by.
Posters in the exhibition
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Adv. Thuli Madonsela shares deep reflections
Former Public Protector Adv. Thuli Madonsela spoke about the extreme poverty and hunger many students in South Africa suffer from. She emphasised that students fought for outsourced and underpaid workers at the universities as well. Adv. Madonsela also reflected on the need to find more effective, strategic ways to achieve social change, without having to protest, and quoted "The greatest general is the one who wins the war without firing any shots". She suggested "why don't we join our lights to capacitate the state to do what it's meant to do" and also declared she was part of an upcoming project in that regard, to be revealed soon.
Sumaya Hendricks of the Nelson Mandela Foundation facilitating the Launch evening
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Invitation to the public to view the exhibition
The thought provoking and often touching new exhibition is open for public viewing at the Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory, 107 Central Street, Houghton - weekdays from 8.30 am to 4.30 pm.
Read more about the launch evening and the exhibition here: