A group of protesters who had gathered om Sea Point Promenade on Saturday to denounce mandatory vaccines and lockdown regulations have accused the police of “aggression and intimidation”.
The maskless protesters marched with placards calling on people to say no to mandatory vaccines and vaccine passports.
According to the police, a case docket was opened in term of the Disaster Management Act regulations and the matter is now under investigation.
“Our members were deployed in Sea Point to police a gathering of approximately 250 people who protested against the Covid-19 vaccine. Appropriate action was taken by our operational forces and the event was concluded at 1.30pm without any violence,” the police spokesperson said.
He added that if anyone felt that they were harshly handled by the police during the protest, then they were welcome to lodge a complaint through police management.
Comedian Joe Emilio, who was among the protesters, claimed that the protest was “peaceful”.
He said, “Police came and they quickly wanted to intimidate protesters, even though they were marching peacefully. There was no rioting or looting or anything like that; people were literally just walking down the Sea Point Promenade peacefully. The police then attempted to stop the march, while people were marching, with a water cannon. They said people should disperse because they are not abiding by lockdown regulations, which is ironic because this is exactly what the people are protesting. Eventually, people stood their ground and told the cops to leave.”
The protest comes as the Western Cape government and City launched a vaccination drive over the weekend aimed at ensuring a safe summer season.
“We aim to fully vaccinate 70% of those over 50 years old by December, and 70% of the eligible population with at least one dose. We set December as our target because we want to ensure that we all have a summer that we can look forward to,” said Premier Alan Winde.
Sources: IOL, MSN
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