South Africa braces for ‘nationwide shutdown’ as military deployed ahead of protest

South Africa is braced for a “national shutdown” on Monday as an opposition party holds protests demanding the resignation of the president, sparking fears of violence.

Police and soldiers have been deployed across the country to increase security presence after South Africa’s third-biggest party, the Marxist Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), called for an occupation of the streets in an attempt to unseat Cyril Ramaphosa.

Authorities are concerned about a repeat of the deadly unrest two years ago, which was the country’s worst spate of violence since apartheid.

Mr Malema called on workers across the country to down tools in protest at rolling power outages being overseen by embattled state utility company Eskom and blamed on ageing energy infrastructure as part of a bid to drive the leader of the African National Congress (ANC) from power.

He addressed a crowd of nearly 1,000 in Pretoria, while marches took place in other cities.

At least 87 people were arrested for public violence and related offences on Monday, police said.

"At least 24,300 tires have been confiscated by law enforcement agencies. These were tires that were strategically placed for acts of criminality," said police spokeswoman Athlenda Mathe.

Mr Malema declared ahead of the protests that “no one can stop a revolution” as he called on his supporters to occupy the streets in outrage at alleged corruption and poor public services, urging activists to remain peaceful while also advising them to “defend themselves from anyone who provokes them with violence”.

The EFF is allied with a number of anti-ANC unions and draws its primary support from Black South Africans who feel left behind by the governing party, which has ruled since 1994 and the end of the apartheid era.

In a statement, President Ramaphosa wrote: “In fulfilment of its constitutional responsibility to protect the rights of all people, government will always have measures in place to ensure that everyone who wants to go to work, travel for leisure and conduct business can do so in a safe and secure environment.”

He added: “We should be clear that the right to protest does not give anyone the right to harass, intimidate or threaten anyone else. It does not give anyone the right to damage property or cause harm to any person.”

The MEC for Economic, Small Business Development, Tourism and Environmental Affairs, Thabo Meeko, described the shutdown as posing “a serious threat to the economy”.

In anticipation of potential hostilities, the country’s parliament issued a statement on Sunday declaring that the South African military would deploy 3,474 troops as an additional peacekeeping force to support local police and guard government buildings and key infrastructure for a month until 17 April.

Law enforcement officers announced at 7am on Monday that they had already arrested 87 protesters across the country for public violence-related offences in the previous 12 hours.

Of that total, 41 arrests were made in Gauteng, the province that includes the capital city Pretoria and Johannesburg, 29 in were in North West province and 15 in Free State, according to national intelligence body NatJOINTS, which added that there have been arrests in other provinces including Mpumalanga and the Eastern Cape.

“Law enforcement officers are on high alert and will continue to prevent and combat any acts of criminality,” NatJOINTS said.

The show of force follows the imprisonment of former president Jacob Zuma for contempt of court in 2021, when the subsequent looting and organised sabotage took police by surprise and led to the deaths of over 350 people. Mr Zuma was later released.

Tebello Mosikili, the country’s deputy national police commissioner and chair of a joint security forces co-ordination committee, had promised last week that “there will be no national shutdown… we learnt our lesson in 2021.”

He said: “Everything from businesses to services will be fully functional. We’re not going to allow lawlessness and acts of criminality.”

Courts in Cape Town and Johannesburg meanwhile banned EFF demonstrators from blocking roads and businesses in response to a legal action launched by Democratic Alliance, the country’s second-largest political party.

International airports will remain open in those cities on Monday and in Durban, although a Toyota manufacturing plant in the latter location will be closed after it became a focal point for violence during the 2021 unrest.

The scene in Pretoria was largely peaceful on Monday morning, with some businesses shuttered and EFF supporters, wearing red, gathering in the city’s Church Square to march, sing and chant.

But Carl Neilhaus, a former ANC member expelled from the party and now representing his own African Radical Economic Transformation Alliance, compared the heavy police presence on the streets to the 1976 Soweta uprising and issued a strong warning to Mr Ramaphosa.

“Those very security services that you may want to use against the people may turn against you – and be careful, because they may very well be the ones who will come into the Union buildings, pull you out of your chair, take you down the road to Kgosi Mampuru prison and put you where you belong,” he said.

Despite the animosity, the ANC is widely expected to lose its majority at next year’s elections and could come to rely on the EFF as a coalition partner, a decade after the movement broke its ties with the governing party.