[imagesource: Gallo Images/Brenton Geach]

Finally, after five anti-vax protests this year in Cape Town, two protesters were arrested for flouting the mask rule.

Somewhere around 40 protesters, of whom quite a few were maskless, gathered this past Saturday (October 9) to voice their opposition to mandatory COVID-19 vaccines and vaccine passports.

Yes, your assumption that this protest was at the Sea Point Promenade is correct.

It is to be noted that the government has not imposed mandatory vaccines on South Africans.

They are however serious about efforts to get at least 70% of the population immunised against the deadly and highly contagious virus before an impending fourth wave.

Here’s more from The Citizen quickly:

Western Cape Premier spokesperson Cayla Murray said no one was being forced to vaccinate. “The official position of the Western Cape Government and the Provincial Cabinet is that it is your choice to get vaccinated, which we strongly encourage,” said Murray.

Unlike at the last mass gathering that took place at the promenade on Saturday, September 18, the police didn’t just turn a blind eye to this maskless gathering.

(That fourth anti-vax demonstration saw around 500 people turn up, by the way, so at least their support seem to be dwindling. Small victories.)

The police took out a case docket based on the Disaster Management Act after that protest on September 18.

This time they’ve taken things to the next level, although, they only managed to arrest two men (aged 25 and 51) for defying the rules that are there to protect everyone:

You can check out more images of the police scuffling with the protesters over here.

The group’s demonstration took them from Three Anchor Bay to the Sea Point pool, where the police were waiting to clamp down, News24 reports:

People carried placards calling on South Africans to “say no to the experimental jab”, “our body, no mask, no vaccines”, “Prof Carim puppet of Bill Gates”, and “we support Dr Susan Vosloo”.

At that pool, the police and protesters clashed after numerous warnings about the mask rule:

A bystander, who witnessed the drama unfold, said the anti-vaxxers were not heeding the police’s warnings.

“The police made it clear, put on your mask and we will have no problem with you, but they just did not want to listen,” the bystander said.

The anti-vaxxers had a wholly different idea of how things went down, claiming that the police were “antagonistic” and adding that it is their constitutional right to protest.

One maskless protestor was seen speaking directly into a police officer’s face, saying:

“You work for me, I don’t work for you, I don’t take orders from you,” the man told police. He said he only takes orders from common law and the Bill of Rights and that police were violating those rights.

That situation unfolded into a chaotic arrest, with a police officer putting the protester into a chokehold:

Western Cape police spokesperson Captain FC van Wyk said two men were arrested for contravening the Disaster Management Act, but released on a warning.

They will have to appear in the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court next month.

[sources:news24]&thecitizen]