|
Violence at Anglo HQ
26/09/2000 20:55 - (SA)
Thami Nkwanyane
Violent demonstrations against the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank were held at Anglo American's head office in Johannesburg on Tuesday.
Protesters burst into the foyer of Anglo's head office. Windows were smashed, and security guards responded by firing pepper gas to protect the group's employees.
Anglo's management was caught completely off guard and were initially unaware of what the protest was about. Only later, after the clashes between the security guards and the protesters did they find out that the opposition was in fact against the IMF and the World Bank, and not against Anglo.
From the library gardens, the protesters also marched to the Gauteng departments of health, housing and finance, where memorandums were handed over to senior officials.
In Cape Town too, a smaller number of protesters raised their objections against the IMF and the World Bank at the American consulate.
The group of about a hundred protesters - including members of the Western Cape Jubilee 2000 branch - amidst a strong police presence, shouted slogans like "Away with the IMF", "World Bank corrupt" and "Scrap all third-world
debt" outside the consulate.
The protest looked as if it might get out of hand when a group of protesters gathered on the steps in front of the entrance to the consulate at about 1 o'clock and threatened to enter the building. About 15 policemen armed with plastic shields intervened to stop them.
For security reasons, the American consulate refused to allow an official to receive the memorandum outside the building. Jubilee 2000 provincial secretary Phelisa Nkomo read the memorandum to the protesters before she handed it over to Mrs M B Lenard of the consulate inside the building.
"We support the hundreds of thousands of people throughout the world who are making use of this opportunity to protest against the World Bank and the IMF - of which America is the protector and benefactor. We say the World Bank means nothing but increasing poverty for us," Nkomo said.
But Anglo accepted the document from more than 300 members of the 26 September Collective - an organisation of anti-privatisation and globalisation organisations.
The Collective, which held a similar march in Durban, called on Finance Minister Trevor Manuel and the World Bank's Mamphele Ramphele to break their ties with these organisations.
Jubilee 2000's Ibrahim Rass said it is important for the fight against these organisations to take place on the local level so that people would be aware of something that will make them poorer and poorer.
Most of the speakers called for the IMF and the World Bank to be closed down since they make the rich richer and make the poor struggle.
|
