Masks aim to cover faces, not voices.

Fairness, justice and freedom are more than just words. This according to Anonymous South Africa, a group of masked men and women who took to the staircases of Nelson Mandela Square to protest authority during lunch hour on 5 October. The protesters shouted out for people passing by and sitting in restaurants to join the Anonymous march. “We are here to speak out, we are you,” they shouted. Sitting on the steps of the square, about 100 people came together in unison to provoke authorities such as government, private companies and the media to stand up against corruption. According to artist Domingo da Silva, the protest is a revival of a 400-year protest celebrating Guy Fawkes. And the people who joined the march teamed up as part of a collective consciousness. Da Silva emphasised that the protest was not affiliated to any group, but rather a collective who “got together in unity to show we are all one and the same, and are able to live together and formulate our own views”. “The problems of the world are caused by humans, and only humans can fix them. We choose to empower ourselves and solve what we can,” added da Silva. Joined by activists in Cape Town and Durban, the event focused on creating awareness about the problems people face in society, and topics such as unemployment, poor education and the right to privacy were highlighted. The march’s objective was to remind this world of what it has forgotten: fairness, justice, and freedom are more than just words.