ANC launches anti-racist campaign in solidarity with George Floyd protestors

On Friday, South Africa’s ruling party the African National Congress (ANC) will launch an anti-racism campaign in solidarity with protests in the United States over the death of George Floyd.

The ‘Black Friday’ campaign will call on South Africans to wear black every Friday for an as yet unspecified period of time. This will serve to highlight the continued prevalence of racism and police brutality in South Africa.

Mr Floyd, a 46-year-old black man from Minneapolis, died on May 25 after a white police officer knelt on his neck for almost nine minutes while Mr Floyd was handcuffed face down in the street. 

His death has reignited tensions over racial inequality and police brutality in the United States, with protests in several US cities spreading worldwide to London, Paris and Berlin. 

Announcing the launch of the Black Friday campaign in South Africa, the ANC tweeted a statement acknowledging that “the demon of racism remains a blight on the soul of our nation”. 

It comes as South Africa prepares to celebrate the 65th anniversary of the Freedom Charter later this month, the document which called for an end to white-minority rule in the country under a system of Apartheid.