More than a hundred supporters of the South African radical left gathered Monday morning in front of the U.S. Embassy in Pretoria to protest against racism, police violence and President Donald Trump.
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" Down with racism ", " down with imperialism ", " down with Donald Trump ", shouted in front of the embassy the demonstrators, led by the " commander in chief " of the Combatants for Economic Freedom (EFF), Julius Malema. This rally was the largest in South Africa, mirroring the global protest movement born after the death of George Floyd, the black American who died suffocated under the knee of a white police officer during an arrest. The EFF supporters paid tribute to the victim by observing, one knee on the ground, 8 minutes and 46 seconds of silence, the time of the immobilization which led to his death.
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" There is enough police brutality on our black bodies, " said Malema to the crowd, flanked by the wife of a man recently killed by the South African army responsible for enforcing confinement against the Covid-19. The political leader also strangled Donald Trump, described as a " white supremacist ", and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, accused of having eased confinement against the coronavirus to satisfy the " white economy " of the country. " We must no longer listen to the president, " he said.
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The EFF, with anti-capitalist rhetoric and willingly anti-whites, garnered 11% of the vote in the 2019 general elections, a marked increase compared to the previous election. A quarter of a century after the fall of apartheid, South Africa remains torn apart by sharp racial inequalities.