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CLIMATE ACTIVIST UNLAWFULLY ARRESTED AT STANDARD BANK PROTEST

Extinction Rebellion, South Africa (XRSA) MEDIA RELEASE 9 March 2024

There’s been a growing and increasingly intimidatory police presence at the regular Friday morning Extinction Rebellion protests outside the bank’s HQ, 30 Baker Street, Rosebank, Johannesburg. Yesterday morning, activist Malik Dasoo was arrested without due police procedure within minutes of arriving. He was thrown into a police van and left in the hot sun for approximately 45 minutes before being driven to Rosebank Police Station.

Malik was not given even one of the two required warnings of arrest, neither was he told the reason for arrest. Police refused to communicate with the other comrades present when asked for an explanation. Malik was detained at Rosebank Police Station for over 7 hours before being released on bail just before the end of the working day.

He has been charged with public violence and inciting violence, despite having always acted in accordance with Extinction Rebellion’s principles of non-violent direct action. For months now climate justice activists have gathered outside the Standard Bank premises on Friday mornings to bring attention to the bank’s role in supporting carbon intensive energy projects that endanger lives, displace people, and increase dangerous emissions of the gases that are driving the climate crisis. These weekly actions commenced following Extinction Rebellion’s three-day occupation of the premises in September last year. The aim of the protests is to push the bank to endorse social and environmental justice as a fundamental part of its investment strategies.