The South African EFF's Cape Town Protest Against Taxi Impoundments Fails to Meet Expectations

The widely anticipated Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) protest took place in the heart of Cape Town on Monday, 2 October, and by most account, fell short of expectations. Although the City of Cape Town administration allowed the EFF a protest attendance of 1,000, reports indicate that only about a third of that number gathered for the event.

The main objective of the protest was to voice the EFF’s discontent over perceived unjust taxi impoundments. The party originally christened the event a “Western Cape shutdown”, an action that led to the African National Congress (ANC) and several other major civic organisations withdrawing their support in the last hour.

Despite a rocky start with supporters, EFF provincial secretary, Mbulelo Magwala, claimed that several minibuses full of protesters were barred from attending by City traffic officers, a setback that may have hindered the protest turnout. Regardless, hundreds of EFF, PAC, Land Party, ATM and Sanco members marched roughly 12 kilometers from Jakes Gerwel Drive to the Ndabeni Transport Deport, taking over four hours.

During the protest, the EFF presented a memorandum condemning the new by-law that grants broader powers to the traffic officers for the impoundment of taxis. The party claimed this ruling allows for the misuse of power against taxi drivers, and called for the release of all impounded taxis.

Despite the perceived low turnout and obstructions, the EFF promised that this protest was the start of many more to come.