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The African National Congress is extremely angered but not surprised that the DA lead City of Cape Town has rejected a protest permit application by Pro-Palestinian activists. We condemn this action in the strongest possible terms.

We are gravely concerned by an ever increasing pattern of ongoing manipulation and abuse of the  bureaucratic processes  to undermine civil society protests whenever it goes against DA policy. The planned protest by a collective of civil society organizations was rejected based on minor and insignificant bureaucratic reasons. It is well known though that the true reason for the rejection is the DAs blatant support of the Israeli apartheid state.

It is also a well known fact that the Democratic Alliance has maintained a cozy relationship between the City of Cape Town, the Israeli government and its’ lobbyists. The constitutional right of civil society to gather and protest is selectively undermined by the City of Cape Town when it chooses to allow procedures to protect certain activities, while using the same procedures to reject other activities. A pattern of clear intolerance towards Palestinian solidarity movements is emerging, as the City continuously places unnecessary restrictions and even rejects protest applications. We remember full well when the City of Cape Town failed to even respond to the ANCYL’s permit application for a Palestinian solidarity protest last year.

The ANC continues to fully support Palestinian solidarity organizations in policy, practice, and principle, whereas the Democratic Alliance condones and supports Israel. Examples of the DA’s ongoing collaboration with the Israeli state include the continuation of apartheid era’s city twinning between the Cape Town and the Israeli City of Haifa, as well as the DA’s annual deployment of their senior political leaders to visit and embrace the Apartheid State of Israel on lobby funded (free) sanction-busting trips as well as being funded by a number of Zionists (such as Natty Kirsh).

The ANC demands that the DA stop interfering with activism based on their political and immoral allegiances, and allow civil society it’s democratic space to protest. The ANC will engage with the organizers to provide support, mobilize, and ensure that the protest is allowed to take place. The ANC will ensure that the voices of those among the 200,000 capetonians who gathered on the 9th of August 2014 are given there democratic  space and rights to articulate their views and express there anger against Israel and it's supporters.  The ANC Western Cape will actively participate and  assist in mobilization for this human rights protest. The ANC will continue to support the people of Palestine until they are free.

Issued by ANC Western Cape