Message from comrade Carl Niehaus in support of the anti-lockdown freedom march to the Union Buildings scheduled for Monday 30 August 2021

26 August 2021

My sincere apology that I am not able to attend this media conference because of other urgent commitments. If it was at all possible I would have definitely joined you today. However, I will most certainly be present, and participate, on Monday the 30th of August, in the march to the Union Buildings.

I am one of those liberation soldiers, who as a member of the ANC, and of the armed wing of the ANC, Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK), dedicated my life to the liberation of the people of South Africa against the evil of apartheid. I fought with dedication for the right to Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Association, and all our other Civil Liberties as contained in the Bill of Rights and Constitution. I joined the ANC when I was 19 years old, I spent close to ten years of my life in jail for those ideals. I have never wavered in my commitment to the full liberation of our people.

I am deeply concerned about the manner in which the COVID-19 protocols are being abused to repress freedom of speech and our hard fought for civil liberties. President Ramaphosa said that no citizen will be forced to vaccinate, but now we hear that there will be pressure and negative sanctions against those who choose not to vaccinate. Such contradictory behavior is the conduct of an unprincipled and untrustworthy government. Evidently their promises are not worth the paper that it is written on. In doing so they undermine the integrity of the COVID-19 protocols, and abuse them for repressive political purposes.

I have exercised my freedom of choice, and decided not to take the vaccine. I will resist with every fiber in my body any attempt to negatively sanction me for having done. it is my civil right to choose not to be vaccinated, and it is the right of every other citizen citizen to similarly choose not to be vaccinated.

I experienced personally how the COVID-19 protocols are being abused when I was arrested in-front of the Estcourt prison, where President Jacob Zuma is illegally being incarcerated as the first political prisoner since 1994. I was arrested on trumped up COVID-19 charges while I was doing a live one-on-one interview with SABC TV. The COVID-19 charges were just a pre-text to silence me because I was talking the truth about the abuse and illegality of the continuing unjust imprisonment of President Jacob Zuma. I will fight those trumped up charges to the hilt!

Similarly all of us, every South African citizen, must fight every instance where COVID-19 protocols are being abused to repress our Freedom of Speech and all other Civil Rights.

I fully support every South African, all religious formations and civil society organizations, who insist uncompromisingly that they will not allow their freedom of association, to worship, and to gather in expression of their beliefs and commitments, to be impeded and undermined. These are basic and inalienable civil and human rights. We must resist being dragged into a police state, tantamount to a dictatorship. Enough is enough!

I thank all those organizations and comrades who have taken the lead to form this broad based movement of conscientious and principled South Africans to resist our rights being abused, curbed and trampled on.

I am greatly honored that I have been asked to be one of the Patrons of this great People’s Movement, and I accept your trust in me with humility with the commitment to serve.

As I always say: We will NEVER allow ourselves to be intimidated. We will not back off. We will not cower.

A LUTA CONTINUA!

Carl Niehaus