Hart chats about DA’s march for jobs

EDITOR – The right to protest is enshrined in our constitution and it is one that I fought for, and indeed many people died for.

It is our right to tell any government or organisation that we do not like what they are doing and if they do not listen to us, to march in protest to make sure we are heard.

And that is exactly what I chose to do to the ANC when I joined the DA’s March for Real Jobs.

To hold a protest march to tell the ANC that I do not like their policies that are holding back real growth and thus the creation of real jobs, that I am not fooled by their promise of 6-million jobs and that even if they do materialise, I know that they are just talking about EPWP jobs, which while they serve the purpose for which they were designed, they are not real jobs and the way the ANC implements them, can’t even lead to real jobs.

And I wanted to tell that to the ANC, because it is the ANC’s policies that the government is forced to implement which is holding back growth and stability in this country.

I am not one for crowds generally, but when you are gathering for a cause, when you are marching to alert the world to the plight of the people, to highlight the continuing injustices being perpetrated on those people, you want to be part of that crowd, the crowd that is standing up to rulers of our land and saying see me, hear me, and listen to me.

As with the previous DA march to call for the implementation of the Youth Wage Subsidy (the ANC listened in the end), we were indeed a happy and upbeat bunch that left the gathering point in the western CBD of Joburg a veritable wave of blue, our only weapons the odd umbrella to protect some of the paler faces against the blazing sun.

Because we had been told in no uncertain terms that we would be met with violence, in order to protect ourselves, the DA called in the services of a professional security team, and together with our own marshals, JMPD officers and members of the SAPS, while obviously being afraid of what could await us, we knew we were pretty well protected.

And indeed that was the case.

All the side roads accessing our route were blocked off and no one had access to them, except for the law enforcement officers and those working in the office blocks.

SAPS armoured vehicles were everywhere and it was obvious that no one was taking any chances.

The planned route was up Marshall Street for several blocks and then to turn left onto Sauer or Simmonds to Beyers Naude Square.

However, even before we left we knew that we would never get to the Square because despite their agreement that they would stay behind the special fence erected around Luthuli House, the ANC supporters had already invaded it, armed with bricks, knobkerries, and as we later learnt, guns and petrol bombs as well.

There was no way that SAPS could have cleared it without the use of force and that was the last thing we wanted, so we gracefully acknowledged that we would have to turn around and not attempt to proceed because our purpose was never to fight, simply to protest, not violently as is the norm in South Africa, but peacefully, and to hopefully set a new precedent in doing so.

The decision was made easier to accept when we heard the petrol bombs going off ahead of us followed by the noise of the stun guns and thus we turned around and headed back down Anderson Street, while the ANC were kept back many blocks away.

However, it was evident that they broke ranks and we saw hoards of yellow t-shirts running parallel to us two blocks away, but at no stage were they allowed to get anywhere near us and quite frankly at no stage was I truly afraid like on the last march.

I had two young activists with me, Julius and Bheki, both on their first march, and I insisted we walk arm in arm because I knew from previous marches that it was far too easy to get separated, and not being exactly tall, I would battle to find them again.

Although as we walked along singing and chanting I suspected that they were both quite nervous, and indeed the presence of the armoured and other SAPS vehicles, and numerous heavily armed law enforcement officers did not make for a pleasant environment!

At the end of the march we were addressed by Helen Zille on the issue of the creation of real jobs as opposed to job opportunities and how there was one job standing in the way of this happening and that was the job of the President.

A by-now exhausted audience, exhausted by both the heat and the excitement, still cheered and danced before slowly dispersing and returning to busses and taxis, certainly none with the so-called R100 bribe as asserted by the ANC’s Jessie Duarte!

However, it was after the march that my real drama began.

Having thought I was being very smart by parking my Jeep a fair distance from our meeting point in order to have a quick getaway, I instead found that not only was my car parked in what was now the ANC side of town but it was actually parked in the middle of all their busses, and firmly parked in.

Thus, in our blue DA t-shirts we brazenly walked passed about 20 or so ANC supporters, greeting them smilingly and commented on how well the march went and how hot it was and wishing them all well, until we arrived at the Jeep.

We then piled in, locked the doors and I told Julius and Bheki to quickly change their t-shirts for the shirts they had been wearing previously.

I then told them to just get out of the car and mill around looking like innocent by-standers, but to keep an eye on the car and not to go too far.

I then removed my t-shirt and wrapped a blanket that I keep in the car for emergencies around me, turned on the radio and kept a low profile, just tweeting and ‘face-booking’ to family, colleagues and friends to alert them to my situation.

Then the waiting game commenced.

I sat in the car, feeling quite scared for myself should the ANC supporters decide to question why I was sitting in the car, other than for the obvious reason that I could not move it.

Responses from my followers on Twitter and Facebook gave numbers to call and a myriad of suggestions to follow should I feel the need.

But despite them milling around the car to get past it or onto the busses, none of them paid me any attention and eventually after two hours, a sufficient number of the busses had moved so that I could then move out myself.

I must admit I wondered what would have happened if they had known that we were DA supporters who had participated in the march, but in all honestly, I just saw them as normal people who support, for whatever reason, a political party different than mine.

There were no bricks, knobkerries or other weapons in sight, just another happy, elated bunch who had rallied to the ANC’s cry to protect Luthuli House.

The need to grow the South African economy and thus the environment for job creation is one of this government’s highest priorities, and nowhere more so than in Gauteng.

The sight of job seekers in our town sitting despairingly on street corners is a sight that greets us daily in Edenvale and their increasing numbers testifies to the crisis we are facing in SA.

Thus, the DA’s March on ANC headquarters as opposed to the Union Buildings, was to demand that the ANC address the issues holding back economic growth in this country like cadre deployment, corruption, high labour costs, low productivity, bureaucratic red tape, lack of infrastructure, high transport cost, not to mention the latest travesty of e-tolling.

While some called it political opportunism and posturing, it was what it was, a protest march against the ruling party’s policies and its inability to improve the lives of the majority of the citizens of this wonderful country of ours.

We marched and we marched peacefully.

6 000 of us saying that the ANC is just not doing enough and must stop telling lies.

They have yet to achieve any of the numbers of jobs they have promised before, why should they start now?

HEATHER HART

EDENVALE

r Letter received February 13.