Over 150 activists and artists joined together at Parliament in Cape Town to Unite against Corruption, one day after the Nkandla Ad-hoc committee accepted the recommendations of the Nhleko report.

The group were calling on all South Africans to mobilise against corruption ahead of the planned Unite against Corruption marches which will happen in Cape Town and Pretoria, and other regional centers, on 23 September 2015.

The picket was a diverse mix of artistic expression, high energy dance and tuneful singing – an unusual coming together of a number of different protest traditions practiced by this broad coalition of organisations and individuals. Brandishing posters with “Protect the Public Protector”, “Unite against Corruption” and “No more Nkandla Whitewash” the picket was lead by several groups of artists who have mobilized over 600 of their members around the country to take on corruption.

Comedian Mark Sampson MC’ed the proceedings, holding together a mixture of participative theatre, hard-hitting poetry by Sipho Ndebele, a powerful exert from “Return of the Ancestors” by Siya Sikawuti and Mandisa Sindo and speeches from NGO and Union leaders.

Present were leaders from the African Arts Institute, the Performing Arts Network of Southern Africa, the United Front, TAC, Right2Know, Sonke Gender Justice, NUMSA, the South African Christian Leadership Initiative, the United Nations Association of South Africa, the Progressive Health Movement, the Democratic Left Front and the United Religions Initiative. They mingled with workers, the unemployed, activists and middle-class suburbanites.

Political commentator Lawson Naidoo of the Council for the Advancement of the South African Constitution addressed the crowd giving insight into the importance of Chapter 9 institutions. Author Mark Gevisser gave interviews drawing on his writing around corruption and cartoonist Chip Snaddon held up two of his cartoons that were produced as posters for the occasion.

Together this broad coalition of South Africans drove home the point that the public are tired of corruption, are willing to stand up to protect the Public Protector and show the corrupt that enough is enough.

A simultaneous picket was held in Johannesburg at the Constitutional Court where Unite against Corruption activists surrounded the court with a human chain to show support for Chapter 9 institutions and the constitution.

Unite against Corruption is calling on all South Africans to march against corruption on 23 September 2015. The public are encouraged to mobilize their communities against corruption and to contribute the the debate in public meetings, on the Unite against Corruption website and by telling the world why you are against corruption on a selfie video you can post on Facebook. VOC