An anti-crime petition demanding a crime-free and corruption-free South Africa with an estimated 70 000 signatures was handed to Johannesburg mayor Amos Masondo’s office on Saturday.
The group Victims in the Republic of South Africa (Virsa) marched from the Johannesburg CBD to Masondo’s office where they handed a memorandum and petition to a mayoral official.
”I will support any crime march organised by anybody to fight crime as I am tired of crime,” said African Christian Democratic Party president Kenneth Meshoe who joined protesters.
Meshoe said he was a crime victim himself as he had reported four cases to the police where he had received a ”raw deal”.
Virsa planned to march against crime in Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban with the aim to collect three million signatures for a petition to hand to government.
The South African Broadcasting Corporation reported at 12pm that Cape Town marchers were gathered outside the gates of Parliament.
Peaceful protesters waited for a representative from the Safety and Security Department to receive their memorandum.
Before the Johannesburg march, organiser Steph Hartung said: ”We are law-abiding citizens and feel that the president should be law-abiding and ensure that our grannies, children and everyone is safe.”
Protesters in Johannesburg wore pink ribbons around their arms in solidarity with victims of crime.
They carried banners with words such as ”Mbeki wake up” and ”Beware criminals, South Africa is gatvol [fed up]” and T-shirts with ”ABC, I’m Affected By Crime” and ”Crime Free South Africa”. — Sapa