A small crowd gathered at the Blackpool hall in Salt River on Wednesday evening in a collective effort from civil society to stand against oppression in Egypt. The Justice for Egypt rally was hosted in order to increase awareness around the current political situation in Egypt as well as the humanitarian crisis that is taking place within the country.

Those who attended the event were supporters of Mohammed Morsi, a man many consider the legitimate president of Egypt after the country’s democratic elections. Morsi was removed from power during a military coup and since then, Egypt has been ruled by a military regime under Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.

Most recently, Morsi was sentenced to death along with various members of the Muslim Brotherhood. Sheikh Abdul Salam Jad Bassiouni an Egyptian born, South African national has also been detained in Egypt without charge.

The main focus of the rally was to highlight that South African organisations as well as South African citizens stand in solidarity with Egypt. However, not very many capetonians were present at the rally and the audience composed of mainly foreign nationals who were eager to show their solidarity towards this movement.

Muhammed Groenewald of the Muslim Youth Movement noted that he was “disappointed” to see so little Capetonians in attendance.

“We are not here to support political groups, we are here to support freedom and justice,” Groenewald said.

Also present at the event were members of the Muslim Judicial Council, the ANC Youth league in the Western Cape, the Young Communist league and students from the UCT Palestinian Solidarity Forum to name a few.

“From the offset the MJC has been leading the cause with matters relating to the international community,” stated Maulana Abdul Khaliq Allie, MJC secretary-general.

“The struggle for a free and just Egypt speaks to our ideology,” Khalid Sayed of the ANC Youth League said.

He added that the South African government is tiptoeing around the issue and the Youth league will take up the Egyptian issue with no compromise.

The speeches were constantly interrupted by chanting calling for Morsi to be freed and for Sisi to be removed as President of Egypt.

After Morsi was overthrown a massacre took place after a protest was held against the current regime. This massacre took place at Rabia Square in Egypt.

Adel abd’Allah, an Egyptian citizen and a witness of the massacre also spoke about the current situation in Egypt.

“Currently more than 40 000 Egyptians are behind bars for no reason,” abd’Allah stated.

The main purpose behind this rally was to show that South Africans stand in solidarity with Egypt and it was requested that Sisi’s upcoming visit to South Africa should be cancelled to indicate that the South African Government does not comply with the human rights violations that is happening under the current Egyptian regime.

So far, there at 1545 death sentences and seven people have been executed. There are 40 00 political detainees which include women who currently face rape and torture within the prisons.

Activists at the rally urged South Africans to join this struggle “as the people of South Africa have lived under an oppressive regime and strived for freedom”. VOC (Umarah Hartley)