Cuban President Fidel Castro and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat will address about 10 000 people expected to take part in a protest march next weekend, the African National Congress (ANC) said on Saturday.
ANC representative Smuts Ngonyama said organisers of the protest were at the moment trying to secure the participation of United Nations general secretary Kofi Annan.
”We are trying to get Kofi Annan. Otherwise Fidel Castro and Yasser Arafat are confirmed to attend. President (Thabo) Mbeki has confirmed,” Ngonyama said.
The march, to start from Alexandra and end in Sandton on August 31, would be staged to demand that developed countries adopt a sustainable development programme over the next 10 years.
The ANC, the SA Communist Party, the Congress of SA Trade Unions, the SA National Civics Organisation and civil society groups would form part of the protest.
Civil Society Secretariat head Desmond Lesejane said government leaders, who were in South Africa to attend the Earth Summit, would take note of issues raised by the large group.
”Whenever people come together, it has been shown that governments take the issues raised seriously,” he told reporters at a press conference on Saturday.
”We are here (Johannesburg) to say: there is a sustainable world, it can be achieved.”
However, security agents and organisers of the protest were battling to sort the route to be taken from Alexandra to Sandton, presumably for security reasons.
”Our primary concerns and objectives are to ensure that our voices are heard. The government has been intransigent in the past,” said Lesejane. – Sapa