Cape Town's Sea Point to host a human chain of collective resistance against Palestine genocide
Activists prepare to form a human chain along Cape Town's Sea Point Promenade in solidarity with Palestine.
Image: Ian Landsberg/Independent Newspapers
The Sea Point Promenade will host a mass human chain on Saturday, November 29, 2025, as South African activists mark the United Nations International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People.
The event, organised by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC), Mothers4Gaza, and partner groups, is expected to draw large crowds under the theme, “From Mandela to Marwan: Sea Point to Gaza, Human Chain for Freedom".
The event will take place at 2.30 pm at the Mandela Glasses on Beach Road, where activists plan to form a continuous human chain along the promenade.
Organisers say the promenade will be transformed into a powerful space of collective resistance, calling on the public to join a coordinated stand “against genocide, apartheid, and the imperial forces that plunder and divide us from Gaza to Khartoum, from the Congo to Caracas.”
A 2,000 m² quilt stitched in honour of victims “from the Cape Flats to Gaza” will form the focal point of the gathering.
Organisers describe it as “a living tapestry”, opposing the recent Trump, UNSC Gaza resolution, declaring: “No to trusteeship, no to foreign control, no to imperialism.”
The rally comes as South Africa prepares to finalise the Implementation of the International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid Bill, 2025, which would give local courts the authority to prosecute apartheid crimes committed anywhere in the world.
The statement calls the bill “a bold step that positions South Africa, once a victim of apartheid, as a global leader in holding perpetrators of racial segregation accountable.”
Jaamia Galant, a spokesperson for the organisers, said South Africans recognise parallels between their history and the current situation in Palestine.
“We, as South Africans, know this struggle,” she said.
“We recognise the architecture of oppression: the administrative detention without trial, the dual legal systems, the prisons filled with freedom fighters. The system that bombed our neighbours and jailed our leaders is the same one we see today in Palestine. Our freedom remains incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinian people.”
The PSC said more than 10,500 Palestinian political prisoners, including women and children, are currently held in Israeli jails, adding that “since last October alone, at least 98 Palestinians have died in Israeli custody.”
The rally forms part of the global “From Mandela to Marwan” campaign, which advocates for the release of Marwan Barghouti and other detainees.
Organisers are urging participants to support four demands: an end to imperial violence, the release of all Palestinian political prisoners and hostages, support for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, and the passing of the Apartheid Bill.
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