SA Rocks

I have returned from the Million Man March (MMM) at the Union Buildings in Pretoria. Let’s get this out of the way off the bat: There were not a million people. All the nay-sayers have been proven right but I hope they are wishing that they weren’t proven right and instead contributed their body to the numbers.

Apparently the final count was 5000 and there abouts. But on the plus side there were over 15 countries with media representation at the march and broadcasting in one way or another. That is good news.

I have been a part of events like this all over the world and I think that I overestimated this one. I arrived with my brother, John, at about 7:30. We parked close and waited for the masses to arrive.

In amidst of the waiting I managed to get some face time with the incredibly humble Desmond Dube, organiser of the MMM. What a great man. He has the ability to make you feel welcome and inspired. He greeted my, I introduced myself and showed him the SA Rocks T-shirt that I was wearing and he was immediately warm to me and give me a hug hello. He thanked me for my work and praised my deep love for South Africa. When you hear people thanking you out loud it really is quite rewarding.

I left Desmond to his devices, which included interviews with what seemed to be e-tv and other TV stations.

At this time it’s about 8am in the morning and there is an inconsistent and slow trickle of people coming in to the Union Building grassed area.

Then at about 10am I think it was, The Times gave me a ring and did a podcast with me about the vibe and attendance and such things:

Click play to listen to the podcast!

At the time of writing this post the podcast had been viewed 1100 times! Not too bad I think.

Things started to get a bit interesting as the day developed. The DA showed a strong presence and tried hard to market themselves effectively throughout the day. Azapo arrived and tried to show their presence, unfortunately that was short lived as they downed their protest tools and chilled out.

My main gripe the entire day was with Altec Netstar and their brand punting the whole day. I was approached by 6 different sales people informing me about their new product called the gaurd-something-or-other. I was a bit offended, being sold to while protesting crime. They really missed the point of the march. It was not an event to punt a product to people. Not at all. Bad move. I wont be buying their product any time soon.

I did a mini-vodcast with a couple of people and managed to get Helen Zille herself on camera speaking to Bongani from Carte Blanche. Nice work I think.

One of the most impressive things that I saw the entire day was the presence of St Mary’s school at the march. Their Matric class was present in full force, full school uniform and voices warm. They showed great spirit and intention. I interviewed the headmistress of the school and she was steadfast in her convictions. She also mentioned to me that the entire St Mary’s school marched in Waverly to show that they own their area, not crime. Great stuff.

And here is a video of the girls from St Mary’s showing us how to protest peacefully.

Below are some of the photos that I took throughout the day. There were many more, but these were the ones worth placing online.

I also twittered (live blogged) the entire day to some mixed responses. Some of the more interested tweets are listed below:

At The union buildings. Very empty. Hope it fills up. Already spoken to desmone dube.

#millionmanmarch ppl streaming in. Vibe is great! Music, support. Loads of political parties unfortunately missing the point

Just did a short podcast with the times. Nice one, numbers slowly increasing. 1hour 2 go.

Live coverage started on sabc. Helen zille just arrived

Numbers here very sad but not focusing on negative. Ppl here have been fantastic.

Desmonds opening line “can a comedian do it?”

‘we need to remove those who cannot hear the cries of the people’

victims of crime speaking. Sad stories. Everyone in crowd nodding in agreement. Sad that we can all relate.

‘crime is robbing us of eachother’

‘crime is the government not servicing its people’

‘we cannot allow criminals to mess with our freedom’ minister booed off stage. Perfect treatment.

One of the most incredible things that happened to me at the MMM was realising that I am making a difference. This blog is actually being read (even though the stats say that it’s anothe thing to realise it in the real world). It is being read by all sorts of people! I found this out at the MMM. People came up to me, asked about the shirt and told me that they read SA Rocks every day, once a week, in the inbox or on the MMM website. To hear people (and see them) face to face telling you that you are making a difference, that they read your website without you asking them to and that they support your efforts is moving and mind blowing. It must be one of the greatest rewards for a blogger – to have “Real life” people telling you that they know who you are. What a great feeling, a very rewarding day all round. I feel like I made a difference and I feel like standing together with 5000 other people is better than standing alone. Whether it was 1 million or not, I don’t feel alone anymore.

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I have done my level best to keep you, the SA Rocks audience happy. You asked me to find more information about the Million Man March and I have tried my best to do that.

Below it seems as though the date of the march hadn’t been released yet. However if you visit the website, you’ll see in the header that the march is scheduled for the 10th of June 2008

Desmond Dube has been kind enough to take the time to answer some questions for SA Rocks! Him and his team have also been kind enough to honour me and SA Rocks with a feature on the Million Man March website under the “Why March” section of the site. Go and have a look, while you are there, sign up under the “count me in” section and show your support. Enough from me, let’s hear what Desmond had to say:

Hi Desmond,

First off, just want to thank you for letting me interview you, I promise I’ll be asking you some different questions! Secondly thank you so much for placing my post on your site. You can’t understand how important and gratifying it is to be apart of this project!

So let’s get in to the questions!

Firstly let me say thank you for initiating the Million Man March. I am 100% behind the project and support the entire thing. I am going to ask you some questions that my readers have been asking me.

1. Do you have an exact date set out for the March and is that date going to be over a weekend?

Yes! we do have a confirmed date the march thank heavens, unfortunately the committte thinks it would be more effective to have the march mid week to make a statement. The aim is to raise the public profile of crime and we might make lots of excuses if it’s a weekend. Crime affects us all and business South Africa will be making a statement of their own if they don’t employees off on this day.

2. What about police endorsement? Is there going to be some sort of police presence?

There will be 1000% police presence. The good policemen of our country are affected just as anybody else, and they want what’s best for this country. So, there will be more than a presence.

3. Where exactly are we marching to and from?

The very best logistic people are working on a suitable gathering point with the metro police of Pretoria or Tshwane. More details about the march will be released later and put on our website: www.millionmanmarch.co.za

4. What sort of response in terms of actual people committing to march have you had so far?

I think we have passed the 500 thousand mark i am not too sure, check the count on the website. The post letters are probably in the region of 10 to 15 thousand, they have filled three big dirty bins. A clear sign that people have had enough.

5. Do you believe that you can reach the target of 1 million people?

Our fear is that we might go waaaayyy over a million at this point and our media have not done it’s roll out yet.

6. Have you heard from the likes of the safety and security minister or the police commissioner regarding the march?

NO! Not yet!

7. What sort of high profile people have shown their support for the march? Can you give my readers some names?

The list is broad, from top sportsmen to the religious elders, i would refrain from naming celebrities because we have stressed that this march is for the Citizens it doesn’t matter who they are and where they come from. A big part of this march is to Unite us, so we would be sending the wrong message if we single out the high profile people.

8. I am imagining a demographically representative and diverse march, am I right in this assumption? Or is it going to be a bunch of privileged people complaining about the country?

I guess i answered this one. The media campaign covers everyone and their living standard measure.
As i said we are all affected by crime.

9. How can we be sure that the march will remain a peaceful and valuable one?

We are throwing 90% of our attention ,resources and messaging on PEACE.
God is in the front line of this march man!, that’s how you can be sure.

We’re almost done, now lets get down to the nitty gritty stuff!

10. Where is your favourite place to visit in SA?

That is an unfair question man! but if i had to choose, i would say God’s Window in Mpumalanga, when God comes back that’s where we are going to meet him.

11. Can you tell me about the most interesting person you’ve met in your profession?

A boy (6)who had never been to school but could read from Alexander, He freak me out.

12. What is your favourite local food?

I am a darkie bro, anything that goes with CHICKEN.

13. Can you tell me, in a few sentences, why you love this country?

I have travelled the world over and i still think it’s the most BEAUTIFUL country i have ever seen. The most dynamic people, The forgiving nation and you got to love the music here.

Desmond, thank you so much for giving me the chance to talk with you. You are doing SA a great service at an integral time in our history and I am proud to say that I will be placing my feet where my mouth often is and taking some positive action!

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UPDATE: A very kind reader guided me towards THIS WEBSITE. Million Man March is the official website for the march started by Desmond Dube.

The site says that apparently there isn’t any official date set yet so I’ll keep checking in there for more information as it appears. Also, visit the site to register and count as a number towards the million.

I am still not exactly sure where we are going to be walking from. But I know that we are walking to the Union Buildings in Pretoria and I am sure that the march is now on the 24th April.

The more people that attend the more affect the march will have. Media coverage has sort of died out which is dissapointing. Hopefully closer to the time things will hot up again and the coverage will become more expansive and in-depth.

For now you can do your part by joining the Facebook group that I set up and spreading the news about the march to as many people as you know!

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The Sunday Times has reported that the Million-man march being organised by Desmond Dube is to be held on the 13th of March, 2008 to the Union Buildings in Pretoria.

I would really like more information like where it starts, what time and all the rest. But for now at least we know it’s on the 13th. I have had people tell me they are going to close down there businesses so that staff can attend. Brilliant idea.

If you have more information please do let us all know!

Enjoy your Sunday!

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A few days ago I posted about a Million-Man March that Desmond Dube is trying to organise. I think the idea is an important one and a potential mind-shifting, nation-building one. I’ll explain why just now.

But some disagree with me in every respect. I had this debate last night with my girlfriend and it became fairly heated. Then Karin commented on the original post today and I thought that it warranted my response.

So here goes.

I am a fan of marching when the cause is something close to my heart or worthy of a fight. I see marches as a massive and relatively quiet version of a brawl. People march because they can’t brawl with an issue. Like crime, we cannot and should not become fighters in the sense of murderers and revenge-seekers, that would not end well. So we march and protest and show our feelings.

Let me take you back. In 2005 I went overseas to do some freelance photography. I went to the G8 summit in Edinburgh. I think it was close on 250 000 people marched to lower the deficit of third world debt. And it worked. the G8 leaders came out of their conference and had made their decision. Some debt was lowered or written off (correct me if I’m wrong here please!). But it worked.

Ghandi protested, Mother Theresa lead her protests through her action and many more. Let’s look at the Million Man March held in the USA in 1995. This was the outcome:

“According to voter registration statistics, one and a half million black men registered to vote in the months following the March, leading David Bositis of the Joint Center for Economic Studies to remark, “In reviewing the sharp increase in the black male vote, I might find it highly implausible that there was another factor that rivaled the Million Man March in bringing about this change.”

And this was their goal: “The event included efforts to register African Americans to vote in US Elections and increase black involvement in volunteerism and community activism.”

Mission accomplished there too.

But the argument here in SA and the one that Karin put across is this, and I quote Karin:

Been there, done that! So what have these marches accomplished except public hooliganism and more offending? Did they ever after a march implement tougher measures or change legislation? Why don’t people start changing in their own backyard by fighting crime in their own communities and working TOGETHER to put measures in place that will change their circumstances there where they live? Be pro-active in your environment with local authorities input? Why wait for “government”?

So let me ask you this: Is marching not the start, the beginning, the recognition of a unified problem that is bringing people together and forcing them to join hands and walk beside one another? Is this not the case? Do all marches end in hooliganism? I don’t think so.

Why don’t people start working together to put measures in place that will change things? This is the start of that, is it not? Is it not a unified sense of discomfort that can bring about a unified solution to a problem? The people who will march (me being one of them) are not waiting for government to organise a march, they are organising it. And they will march and I will join them.

When I started SA Rocks a year ago I did it because I firmly believed that there was a mind-shift-change taking place. One from negativity to POSITIVE ACTION. That is where we are. No one said this march would be about violence, anger, oppression, hooliganism and by implying this you are expecting and willing it to be so.

One million people. Take a second to stop and think about that. Have you ever seen one million people in one place? I’ve seen close to 300 000 people in one place at one time and it was moving. Imagine the sense of belonging and unity that people will feel, imagine the shift in consciousness that will take place. One million minds sharing a common goal and unified purpose, that is life changing and solution-starting right there.

If nothing more comes of this than people feeling like they are OK and they will be OK then I think the march will have achieved a greater purpose than anything else has in this country of late.

I spent about an hour looking for graphic representation of one million people. Have a look:

And finally, a million people is the population of East Timor and Swaziland respectively. That is a lot of people!!

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On the front page of The Times today there is an article calling for people to march against crime.

It’s happened before and will happen again but I still always feel the urge to get involved and call people to action.

“I’ll organise the celebrities. We’ll lead the march if needs be, but we need the ordinary people to join us. Let’s do it. Let’s get a million people to tell the government that we’ve had enough.”

This is what Desmond Dube had to say regarding the movement. “Now is the time to organise a million-man march on Pretoria – To let the people responsible know how we feel, to make the accountable.”

I couldn’t agree more and if it takes a celebrity leadership to do it, SA Rocks is right behind them.

As you can see in the top left of the new site design there is a motto, “Positive Action”. This is what I have decided mould SA Rocks in to, Positive Action.

I think it’s time we took some action, make it positive and let the government know that we are unhappy and not leaving, we are going to stay and fight for what we love. fl

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