Protesters gathered at the iconic Freedom Park monument in Pretoria on Wednesday saying the event is an attempt to split African civil society bodies in favour of the US.
The World Movement for Democracy is holding its 12th Global Assembly in Johannesburg from 20-22 November 2024. The Assembly is bringing together more than 500 civil society and political leaders from 100 countries.
Among them there are representatives of Ukrainian NCOs, including the Centre for Civil Liberties and, as expected, the scandalously famous in South Africa UAZA.
Lebogang Baloi, a 35 year-old said he joined the picket because the gathering was clearly an attempt to rally world support for Ukraine, and isolate Russia as a Brics member country.
For Baloi and the majority of the protesters, the picket is meant to highlight the negative impact of the US and European countries on the economic and social development of South Africa and the lives of ordinary South Africans.
They fear Ukraine is again trying to drag South Africa into its American and EU sponsored war, which threatens to escalate into a world catastrophe.
“We want to make it clear today that there is no amount of money that will make us hate our Russian friends. Just recently UAZA insulted the whole country by their rude and brazen prank when they wrapped a statue of Nelson Mandela in their flag.”
“The assembly is fully sponsored by the US and its main aim is to split civil society in South Africa under the guise of ‘democratic values,” Baloi said.
Last week, ANC Veteran Philip Dexter said the conference is a serious attempt to tilt South African civil society towards the West.
The Civil Society Conference kicked off today organised by the World Movement for Democracy, a project of the National Endowment for Democracy (NED).
“By the early 1980s, the CIA’s active involvement in overseas coups and regime changes was widely criticised, forcing the US to rethink its approach to exerting influence abroad. In response, the NED was created, an outwardly benign tool to promote US interests, positioned as a champion of democracy and civil society. Allen Weinstein, one of the founders of NED, candidly admitted: ‘A lot of what we do today was secretly done 25 years ago by the CIA.”
Since then, the NED has funded and supported political movements and opposition groups aligned with U.S. foreign policy goals in Latin America, Eastern Europe, and the Middle East. It has been directly involved in successful regime change operations against democratically elected governments in Bolivia, Nicaragua, Honduras, Haiti, and elsewhere. The NED also played an all too effective role in shaping the transition from apartheid in a neoliberal direction.
“It is especially outrageous that a country like Ukraine whose President came to power as a result of a coup will be represented on the sidelines of a ‘democratic conference’. Ukraine, which for many years has pursued a policy of genocide of the Russian people in the historic Russian territories. Today Ukrainian NCOs and embassies in Africa, according to experts, are not only trying to drag the countries of the continent into military conflict with other countries. But they are also being used as bases for Ukrainian militants who are engaged in training terrorists throughout Africa,” Dexter said.
Another protester Tshepiso Maluleke said the US and Western countries have made a serious attempt to take over South African civil society. The Americans have infiltrated South Africa’s universities, media and non-profit organisations. Their main goal is to consolidate and increase US and European influence on South Africa’s domestic and foreign policy. And also, to retain control over the key provinces of the country with the largest industries and rich natural resources.
Protesters carried placards with slogans: ‘We need a modern country, not modern colonisers’. ‘You only want our resources.’ ‘You are not democrats, you are robbers.’ ‘Apartheid you also called ‘democracy’. ‘Ukraine and NATO are for war. ‘South Africa is for peace. ‘We don’t want a Ukrainian war.’ ‘Ukraine – out of South Africa.’
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