Anticipated presidential:

Anti-Biya protest demonstrations in South Africa

By Njodzefe Nestor

Protesters in front of Cameroon

Embassy in South Africa

Opposition parties and Cameroonians resident in South Africa on Friday April 22, 2016 staged a demonstration in front of the Cameroon High Commission, 80 Marais Street, Brooklyn Pretoria, South Africa, to protest what they called the negligence of Biya’s government on pertinent issues and the coordinated calls by the CPDM for President Paul Biya to stand as candidate in the 2018 presidential elections.

According to a source close to The Median in SA, the presence of the Police did not deter the protesters from brandishing placards with anti-Biya inscriptions.

                The three political parties involved namely the SDF, MRC and CPP handed a memorandum to the Cameroon High Commissioner to South Africa, Adrien Kouambo, after the protest demonstration, reports said.

                The organizers of the protest, dubbed ‘Black Friday,’ said they want to warn Yaoundé authorities that they have had enough from the Biya regime. 

                “We are protesting as Cameroonians in the Diaspora who want political and other reforms in our country. We have had enough. We are charting a path for the Third Republic - the post-Biya era,” said the SDF Chairman for South Africa, Milton Taka.

                This was corroborated by the Chairman of the Cameroon Renaissance Movement, CMR, in South Africa.

                "We are sending a signal to the BIYA regime that 34 years at the helm of our beloved country has contributed to the deterioration and disintegration of the country. He should retire. Let Cameroonians come out in their numbers and denounce the regime," said Nestor Djomatchui.

                He added: “There is need for the opposition parties to come together and talk with one voice and have a common strategy to remove the regime in power. All the political parties MUST leave their partisan views aside and focus on the enemy of our nation. Without a coalition of all opposition parties, we are doomed to fall and by so doing, extending the BIYA regime.”

                The Cameron People’s Party, CPP’s Chair for SA, Sofa Augustine noted that “the protest is part of our struggle for a better Cameroon, where there is no water, no electricity amid abundant natural resources.  We want economic and social transformation of our country.”

                “Our recent 'Stand up 4 Cameroon' initiative to wear Black every Friday to demand for water, electricity and health has been gaining momentum worldwide. We did protest during the Douala Laquantinie hospital debacle after which our President, Comrade Edith Kah Walla and others were arrested,” he added.

                However, the CPDM South Africa has condemned the protest, arguing that Cameroonians are not supposed to wash their dirty linen in public.

                “Cameroon is a democratic country and it is their democratic right to demonstrate. Nevertheless we of the CPDM condemn such protests, which to us only symbolize washing our dirty linen in public.  Opposition parties like the SDF are present in parliament and we think that it is more appropriate for them to channel grievances there,” observed Kum Bezeng, CPDM-SA communication officer,