Date: 11 August, 1996

Members of People Against Gangsterism and Drugs (PAGAD) attend a rally in Cape Town. Similar rallies were held in Durban and Johannesburg's Lenasia area, and national support increased. As tensions brewed in these rallies, police and troops patrolled the surrounding areas. Leaders of PAGAD denied that they were planning for "jihad" or holy war and maintained theirs was a broad-based campaign against crime, for which they were receiving an enormous amount of support on grass-roots level by various stakeholders. In spite of the success of the rallies, one PAGAD member was reported arrested in Cape Town on charges of murder and sedition. The organisation stressed that it was seeking aid from external sources, including the Lebanese Islamic guerilla movement Hezbollah. They encouraged their members to support existing channels of law enforcement, as their aim was to fight crime within the boundaries of South Africa.

Source:

Kalley, J. A. et al (1999). Southern African Political History: A Chronology of Key Political Events from Independence to Mid-1997, Greenwood: London, p. 549.