JOHANNESBURG, Aug 31: Thundering out slogans, South Africa’s poor on Saturday showed activists from around the world the country’s two faces, marching from Alexandra, a decaying slum, to protest outside the Earth Summit in the plush, mostly white, suburb of Sandton.

At least 10,000 militants started their march mid-morning, winding like a slow red wave through the filthy streets of Alexandra, mostly decked in the red T-shirts and headbands of the Anti-Privatisation Forum (APF) or the Landless People’s Movement.

Their message to the summit was clear, with the letter S replaced by a dollar sign in some cases: “Down with the WSSD (the World Summit on Sustainable Development”, “Our world is not for sale” and “Bomb Sandton”, claiming that corporations had hijacked the summit and demanding “Land, food, jobs”.

A second, more restrained, march of some 5,000 civil society delegates to the summit, under the banner of the Global People’s Forum, left from the Alexandra stadium in the midday heat after listening to President Thabo Mbeki speak.

“I am very glad that all of us came here from across the world to Alexandra township because what the people of Alexandra want are the same things that the poor people across the world want,” Mbkei told that crowd.

Pro-Palestinian protesters wrapped in scarves with banners and posters, branding Israeli leaders as “terrorists” and equating Zionism with apartheid — were a major bloc in both marches.

The two marches shared some common demands — like an end to poverty and an end to “global apartheid” — but they diverged in mood.

The chanting, ululating and toyi-toying (war-like dancing) of the bigger march, which included children, pensioners and a disabled man in a wheelchair, reflected the defiant spirit of anti-apartheid demonstrations.

But the countless police on the sidelines, armed with new riot shields, batons and guns, kept a low profile, unlike the apartheid era when demonstrations were brutally dispersed.

Two police helicopters constantly circled above the marchers, who were controlled by a single row of marshals with linked hands, as they wound their way past the stadium where Mbeki was speaking.

Corner shops along the way sold drinks and ice creams and gave water to marchers as children skipped alongside them cheering “Viva, viva (long live)”.

South Africans and their needs dominated the march in Alexandra.

When the marchers crossed the polluted Juskei River, APF leader Virginia Setshedi said: “This is the river that gave us cholera, that caused our people to die”, calling for clean water.

But anti-globalisation sentiments like “Dismantle the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund” also abounded and activists of the land movement in Brazil were up front in solidarity with the South Africans.

“We believe it is possible if we share equally,” said Dorothy Fernandes of India, marching in a traditional sari.

Young Sook Park of the Women’s Environmental Network of (South) Korea said she supported the march and wanted to see how the rest of South Africa lived, outside of luxurious Sandton.

“The living conditions in Alexandra were shocking, they were unthinkable,” she said. “We need development now.”

Across town, some 1,000 Zulus took to the streets to protest their own living conditions in a number of hostels, where migrant workers mainly from eastern KwaZulu-Natal live.

“We are angry and we are also marching because we want sustainable development where we live, like water and electricity,” Induna (chief) Bheki Masebuku told AFP.

Marchers brandished traditional weapons like shields, club, and fighting sticks and carried placards saying: “Your summit means nothing to us.”

The marches ended peacefully after leaders handed over a memoranda to UN and government officials.—AFP