The Durban High Court on Friday barred the March and March movement from protesting over the election period. The order also covers others who join its anti-illegal immigration protests.
When the protests resume, they may only take place between 10am and 3pm, and only along set routes. The court also ordered that protesters may not carry weapons, cover their faces or act violently.
“Place yourself in the position of a police officer, a 25-year-old police officer who has the responsibility to protect the people of KwaZulu-Natal in these situations. I don’t think it’s right. I have to be frank about that,” Acting Police Minister Firoz Cachalia said on Friday.
Cachalia and KwaZulu-Natal Police Commissioner Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi applied for the interdict. They wanted to stop the movement from marching in the Durban CBD and around the Home Affairs Refugee Reception Centre on Che Guevara Road.
Speaking to supporters outside the court, March and March attorney Xolani Zuma said the movement would only protest again after 6 November. He said the judgment also bans sticks, knobkerries and other weapons during marches.
Zuma asked supporters to return to protest from 7 November. He also asked them to obey the court order to avoid more legal action.
The ban on sticks upset some marchers. They said they take pride in their Zulu accessories when they express themselves.
March and March leader Jacinta Ngobese-Zuma stepped in to calm the crowd. She told them the choice was between marching without sticks or not marching at all.
Earlier on Friday, Cachalia defended the police’s court action during a briefing in Durban. The briefing dealt with police readiness for the 4 November local government elections.
He said protests held without notice force police to move officers and resources at short notice. He warned that such protests could lead to attacks on the public, arson, serious injuries or deaths.
Cachalia said organisers and leaders had a duty to make sure protests did not turn into violence, crime and lawlessness. He said officers sent to tense situations came from the same communities they were expected to protect.
He said sending large numbers of officers to KwaZulu-Natal came at a high cost to the police service. He listed transport, accommodation, protection and overtime among the costs.
“It’s a very costly exercise, when the main responsibility of the police in this situation should be simply to ensure that there is a free and fair election, which is why the police officers on the ground in KwaZulu-Natal took the decision to launch this interdict, to ask the court to assist the police to establish the parameters of protest action, those parameters determined by the law,” he said.
Cachalia said the application was not about denying people the right to protest. He said police had asked the court to make clear the legal limits for demonstrations.
He said the police needed the court’s help to make sure the right to demonstrate was not used to justify violence or crime.
Source: this article is based on reporting by IOL. Image: IOL. Written with the help of AI and published by the Tzaneen Voice News desk. See our Editorial Standards.
Kgomotso Maake covers news and politics for Tzaneen Voice. Kgomotso reports on government, Parliament, municipalities, courts, crime and service delivery across South Africa, with a close eye on how national decisions reach towns like Tzaneen and the wider Limpopo province. Stories are written in plain English and focus on the facts: who made the decision, what it means, and what happens next.