2023 South African National Shutdown
Protest In response to the South African Energy Crisis / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The 2023 South African National Shutdown was a protest held by the political party Economic Freedom Fighters on 20 March 2023, the day before Human Rights Day.[8][4][9][10][11] The EFF called for the resignation of President Cyril Ramaphosa and an end to load-shedding.[3][5] The leader of the EFF, Julius Malema, warned businesses countrywide to close their doors or risk being looted by them.[12][6][13][14][7]
2023 South African National Shutdown | |||
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Date | 20 March 2023 | ||
Location | |||
Parties | |||
Lead figures | |||
Casualties | |||
Arrested | 500 confirmed[6][7] |
The Mail and Guardian speculated that the shutdown was a "dry-run" for the EFF's campaigning abilities in preparation for the 2024 general elections.[15] Polling by the Social Research Foundation that had been carried right before the shutdown reportedly found that electoral support for the EFF had strongly declined, from 12% in July 2022 to 6% in March 2023.[16][17]