DURBAN - A GROUP claiming to be members of the now defunct Umkhonto we Sizwe Military Veterans Association (MKVA), supported by other organisations, led a march in Durban yesterday protesting against mandatory Covid-19 vaccination, proposed vaccine passports, and demanding the removal of President Cyril Ramaphosa.
The protesters have established an umbrella body, the People’s Revolutionary Movement (PRM), which includes organisations such as the Unity Group, Phepha, the SACP and the Unemployed Graduates Movement (UGM).
The group threw their masks outside the Durban High Court and set them alight, claiming that vaccines and the use of masks was a government method of killing people.
Nhlanhla Buthelezi, president of the PRM KZN region, said the group was protesting against what it had seen as a deliberate attempt to impose vaccinations on South Africans by denying them access to certain venues, and compromising their employment if they did not have proof of vaccination.
Addressing the crowd, Buthelezi said he believed the pandemic was over. He questioned why the government had relaxed lockdown restrictions ahead of the elections if it believed there was a Covid-19 crisis. “All masks and sanitisers must burn. Corona is over. We must take away Commonwealth and other foreign power influences. The truth is that the government is working with the new world order to kill us and we must not allow them.”
He challenged Ramaphosa to test public sentiments on whether they were still happy with his leadership. “Cyril must go. He must test for himself to see if the people are happy with his leadership.”
UGM speaker Nkululeko Ndlovu said it represented 9 million unemployed graduates who were frustrated with the government.
“We have given power to the leadership and have forgotten that the power is with the people. People are hungry. This is just a taste of what is to come.”
Nhlanhla Mnqondo, deputy chairperson of Phepha, said the group supported the MKMVA’s fight against mandatory Covid-19 vaccination.
The crowd’s memorandum was accepted by Durban High Court registrar Siyabonga Dlamini on behalf of the judge president.
The PRM said they would give the government 21 days to respond to their demands. They issued flyers to the crowd advertising a planned mass march on October 2, to Addington Hospital to “stand united against forced jabs and the vaccine passport”.
Nhlakanipho Ntombela, spokesperson for the provincial ANC, said nationally and provincially there were no recognised MKMVA structures.
“They have a right to protest but they must not do so under the banner of the MKVA or the ANC.
“The ANC does not force but encourages people to vaccinate as per the national mandate.”
THE MERCURY