The iconic Brixton Tower in Johannesburg lit up on Wednesday night with messaging calling for an end to exploitative debt in poor countries. World leaders will be gathering in the city this weekend for the G20 summit. The action was done by South African artists who teamed up with activists from the Glasgow Actions Team (GAT).
As Johannesburg readies to receive world leaders for the first G20 on African soil, a group of local South African artists teamed up with activists from the Glasgow Actions Team (GAT) to illuminate Johannesburg’s skyline on Wednesday night. They projected a series of posters and illustrations, demanding urgent action on the global debt crisis and climate accountability.
Buildings in Sandton, Braamfontein and Brixton were used as a massive canvas as they called for debt reform and more action on climate change.
In Sandton, commuters and pedestrians stopped to look at the massive projection on the outside of the Sandton Towers, which called for massive polluters to pay their fair share to help deal with the climate crisis. In Braamfontein, the walls of the Johannesburg City Metro Centre and iconic Brixton Tower were illuminated with messages, calling for an end to exploitative debt on the poor.
A giant projector was used by the artists to illuminate buildings with their messaging.
“We use creative direct action to bring attention to some of the biggest crises facing humanity right now,” says Andrew Nazdin from the Glasgow Actions Team. “Whether it be the climate crisis, affordability or the debt crisis. We want to make sure we are shining a light on some of the biggest problems and the people making them happen so that the rest of us have a chance to live in dignity.”
Activists also called on the South African government, as the host of this year’s G20 summit, to take a strong stance on debt reform, to mitigate high debt negatively affecting poorer nations, hampering their ability to invest in their populations and meet their development goals.
Activists from Greenpeace Africa stood with banners in the streets of Santon calling for higher taxes on the super-rich.
Sekoetlane Phamodi, program director at the New Economy Hub, which participated in the protest, said that some African countries are paying more in debt service costs than they invest in comprehensive public health and education services.
“This is not only denying them the right to invest in the wealth of their nations, but it is worsening household deprivation, fueling social crises, and driving political instability, as we’ve seen in the unrest spreading across countries from Kenya to Madagascar, Morocco, Nepal, Indonesia, and others. The global debt crises, development crises, and the democracy crises are all intertwined. We’re counting on our leaders to deliver real structural reforms, starting with urgent debt relief and a global financial system that puts people before creditors.”
Sekoetlane Phamodi, program director at the New Economy Hub, echoed the activists’ call for higher taxes on the super-rich and for wealthy nations to pay their fair share.
Local artists who developed the artwork and chose the locations were represented by CAMP, the Community Art Mobilisation Project, a visual arts collective which calls attention to the urgent issues facing people by working with affected communities.
CAMP’s work can be seen across Joburg. They have previously worked on artwork highlighting concerns around the Stilfontein miners, the plight of people in Gaza, Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, as well as South Africa’s inequality crisis.
“A lot of the graffiti in Joburg is really apolitical, so we are one of the only art collectives putting political messaging on the streets. We’ve identified a gap for artists to make critical interventions in public spaces using prints, murals, and collage. We do culture jamming and make protest materials,” said a representative from CAMP.
The event follows an open letter signed by 164 civil society organisations from around the globe, calling on President Cyril Ramaphosa to take a “far stronger” position on the debt crisis.
The Johannesburg City Metro building had “Drop the debt” messaging projected over some G20 banners.
Artwork around the G20 by the South African artist collective CAMP is seen along Empire Road in Johannesburg.
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Teedersmartie
Fun South African Fact: Mandela’s house on Vilakazi Street is now a museum. The man who the street was named after, Dr BW Vilakazi, was a poet, novelist and intellectual. He helped develop the written form of both isiZulu and siSwati and helped put together the isiZulu dictionary.
Gothic Gucci
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I thought he was born in Mad-at-gas-car