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| Jubilee
protest against WEF 7 June 2001 Sapa Supporters of the Jubilee campaign for debt relief on Thursday gathered outside the Reserve Bank building in Cape Town to demand that South Africa withdraw from the World Economic Forum (WEF). South Africa is currently hosting a regional WEF summit in Durban. The 30-odd protesters, who unfurled a large SA Communist Party banner, held up placards condemning globalisation, and chanted "Down with the capitalist system". They were closely watched by police, who kept a detailed log of the two-hour demonstration. Jubilee spokesman Ben Londzi told the protesters and a scattering of passers-by that the South African government's links with capital undermined democracy. "The government listens to them (the capitalists) and forgets the poor people who voted for it," he said. "At the end of the day they are affected the most." Jubilee Western Cape treasurer Ephraim Moganedi said the government's money could better be spent on improving the lives of the poor than sitting around a table with "corporate mobsters". Londzi handed over a memorandum to the bank's assistant branch manager, David de Klerk. The memorandum said Jubilee viewed the WEF and its regional summits as "the place where capitalists plan their latest attacks on the poor". "Previous summits have proved that the needs of the masses are not welcome and never on the agenda," it said. It demanded South Africa withdraw from the WEF, and assist in dismantling the body. The government should also demand reparations from Swiss banks that funded apartheid - the same institutions that were key funders of the WEF. De Klerk said the memorandum would be forwarded to the office of Reserve Bank Governor Tito Mboweni. "Thanks broer (brother)," said Londzi, shaking hands with him. The two-hour protest was also witnessed by relays of Reserve Bank employees emerging from the building for cigarette breaks. A beggar who asked protesters for money was told to ask the bank instead. Jubilee is planning a mass protest on Friday outside the venue of the WEF summit in Durban, as well as a march on the headquarters in Johannesburg of the Standard Bank. http://www.sapa.org.za |
