Nelson Mandela Bay protesters show solidarity in fight for racial justice over killing of George Floyd

Activists, political party heads, religious leaders and residents gathered at The Atrium parking lot in Greenacres on Thursday to picket in solidarity with protesters around the globe calling for justice for George Floyd.

Floyd’s death while in the custody of Minneapolis police officers last week has sparked widespread protests aimed at addressing racism in the US.

Organisers of Nelson Mandela the Bay picket — anti-apartheid activists Mike Xego, Khusta Jack and Lungile Mxube — said they could not be quiet as the brutality Floyd endured was a reminder of what South Africans had suffered under apartheid.

The picket saw the group of at least 50 people holding placards of the Black Solidarity Campaign to end racism  gather in front of The Herald as they believed the media  had the potential to carry the antiracism message across the world.

Addressing the gathering, Xego said the picket also aimed to teach children that they were all one despite their skin colour, and needed to stop discriminating against each another.

“When you see a black child practising racism stop him immediately, and the same when you see a white child practising racism — stop him immediately.

“No-one must do anything to hurt us — we have come too far,” he said.

Xego said South Africans were part of the unity showed by the world after the death of Floyd.

He quoted Nelson Mandela’s Rivonia Trial speech and urged the people gathered to follow the late statesman’s  ideology.

Also speaking at the solidarity picket, Jack said even if the number of picket attendees was not big, morality was not about numbers.

“Today’s morality is not about numbers but a conviction and a belief that you do not subscribe to racism in whatever shape or form.

“And that is what we fought for and what freedom is about,” Jack said.

Eastern Cape DA leader and Bay councillor Nqaba Bhanga, who also participated, agreed.

“This is a struggle of black and white people.

“Yesterday [Wednesday] I saw white soldiers and a white sheriff kneeling down saying we are in solidarity for  a struggle for a human race.

“You must continue fighting for what is right, and not allow a country and laws to define you on the basis of your colour of skin,” he  said.

On Thursday, AFP reported that in Minnesota, prosecutors had initially charged 44-year-old Derek Chauvin — the white officer filmed kneeling on Floyd’s neck for nearly nine minutes — with third-degree murder but  on Wednesday upgraded the charge, roughly akin to manslaughter, to second-degree murder, which did not involve premeditation but carried stiffer penalties.

Chauvin’s three colleagues at the scene of Floyd’s May 25 arrest — for allegedly seeking to buy cigarettes with a counterfeit bill — are accused of being complicit in the killing.

Tou Thao, 34, J Alexander Kueng, 26, and Thomas Lane, 37, were charged with aiding and abetting second-degree murder, and taken into custody.

The arrest of all four officers has been a focus for tens of thousands of protesters who have marched the streets of dozens of US cities, often defying curfews to condemn police brutality and demand racial justice.