Kumi Naidoo forcibly removed from Standard Bank HQ after protest over crude oil pipeline project (By Julia Evans)

Human rights activist Kumi Naidoo and Extinction Rebellion climate activist Malik Dasoo were forcibly removed from Standard Bank’s headquarters in Johannesburg on Monday after protesting against the bank’s potential involvement in the East Africa Crude Oil Pipeline project.

‘Let’s be very clear — the crisis of climate change is with us now, lives are being taken now. It’s just that the lives that are being lost are not the lives of the wealthiest, it’s the lives of the most vulnerable people who have contributed least to the tragedy of climate change,” said human rights and climate activist Kumi Naidoo.

He was standing outside Standard Bank’s headquarters in Rosebank, Johannesburg, on Monday, while the bank held its annual general meeting.

The handful of activists who managed to make it inside the building, and the more than 400 activists protesting outside from behind a balustrade, were calling for the bank to “redirect its funding towards renewable energy initiatives that prioritise low-income communities rather than catering solely to wealthy clients” and to divest from the East African Crude Oil Pipeline project (Eacop) and the Cabo Delgado gas project.

Read the full article on Daily Maverick by Julia Evans here