Two weeks ago, Extinction Rebellion activists held a three-day occupation outside the head office of Standard Bank in Rosebank, Johannesburg. It was an act of civil disobedience, a deliberate and peaceful provocation to Standard Bank which, the organisers say, aimed to highlight its continued financing of fossil fuels, and in particular the East African Crude Oil Pipeline project.
In response Standard Bank’s private security henchmen from TSU Protection Services, supported by the SAPS, acted as if it was they who faced an existential threat. Among other violations, they. Then, two days later, without warning and while negotiations to end the protest were going on, they dismantled the occupation and arrested one of the protesters, Angelo Doyle, who was violently manhandled for shouting a slogan, not because he acted threateningly.
The job of the police is to protect protesters, especially if they are not endangering other people or property. By most accounts this was a fairly benign protest. Daily Maverick journalist Lerato Mutsila is thrown out of the Standard Bank headquarters in Rosebank, Johannesburg, on 19 September 2023.
Nevertheless, Sim Tshabalala’s advisers should inform him that the climate activists present more than just a nuisance factor. They are calling on NGOs to close their accounts with the bank. They are meeting with creatives, churches and trade unions.