Jamming for Sanitation

In some of Cape Town's black townships, residents have to stand in line to use one of the portable chemical toilets made available to them.

Photo: SJC.

The Social Justice Coalition’s Freedom Day toilet queue was quite an achievement, considering that the last time such a large crowd of Capetonians took to the streets in protest was against the US invasion of Iraq. Freedom Day 2011 was different. Roughly 1000 people congregated in and around St George’s Cathedral in downtown Cape Town at noon, to express their frustration at the lack of basic services in the city’s townships.

Key speakers Archbishop Thabo Makgoba and AIDS activists, Vuyiseka Dubula and  Zackie Achmat, warmed everyone up by reminding us why we were there: to show solidarity for our brothers and sisters who survive each day without access to clean water, decent toilets or security and to remember those, like Andries Tatane, who lost their lives taking on this post-apartheid struggle.

Photo: SJC.

The gathering doubled as more people poured into the venue and then we walked, 2000 strong followed closely by armed police, to the Cape Town Civic Centre. There we stood in a queue, symbolic of the queues that residents of Site B infomal settlement (Khayelitsha) and Gugulethu and Nyanga townships and other deprived areas in the mother city have to stand in if they want to use one of the portable chemical toilets on offer in their neighborhood.

While we queued, members of the SJC read the petition that over 10,000 people had signed, before a representative of the mayor made his way down the steps of the Civic Centre through a barricade of police to receive it. It was a peaceful demonstration, people stood together, some sang, others danced, thank God no one got shot, but we made our point.

Further Reading

Repoliticizing a generation

Thirty-eight years after Thomas Sankara’s assassination, the struggle for justice and self-determination endures—from stalled archives and unfulfilled verdicts to new calls for pan-African renewal and a 21st-century anti-imperialist front.

Drip is temporary

The apparel brand Drip was meant to prove that South Africa’s townships could inspire global style. Instead, it revealed how easily black success stories are consumed and undone by the contradictions of neoliberal aspiration.

Energy for whom?

Behind the fanfare of the Africa Climate Summit, the East African Crude Oil Pipeline shows how neocolonial extraction still drives Africa’s energy future.

The sound of revolt

On his third album, Afro-Portuguese artist Scúru Fitchádu fuses ancestral wisdom with urban revolt, turning memory and militancy into a soundtrack for resistance.

O som da revolta

No seu terceiro álbum, o artista afro-português Scúru Fitchádu funde a sabedoria ancestral com a revolta urbana, transformando memória e militância em uma trilha sonora para a resistência.

Biya forever

As Cameroon nears its presidential elections, a disintegrated opposition paves the way for the world’s oldest leader to claim a fresh mandate.

From Cornell to conscience

Hounded out of the United States for his pro-Palestine activism, Momodou Taal insists that the struggle is global, drawing strength from Malcolm X, faith, and solidarity across borders.