The Purple Rain Protest, Purple Rain Revolt or Purple Rain Riot was an anti-apartheid protest held in Cape Town on 2 September 1989, four days before South Africa's racially segregated parliament held its elections. A police water cannon with purple dye was turned on thousands of Mass Democratic Movement supporters who poured into the city in an attempt to march on South Africa's Parliament. White office blocks adjacent to Greenmarket Square were sprayed purple four stories high as a protester leapt onto the roof of the water cannon vehicle, seized the nozzle and attempted to turn the jet away from the crowds.
One of the dyed buildings was the Cape Headquarters of the National Party. The historic Town House, a national monument (now known as a provincial heritage site), was sprayed purple and the force of the jet smashed windows in the Central Methodist Church.
Tear gas was fired and the crowd that had knelt defiantly in the purple jet fled. Adderley Street was closed to traffic as scores of shops and businesses closed their doors and hundreds of people were arrested, including Dr Allan Boesak, UCT academic Dr Charles Villa-Vincencia, Western Cape Council of Churches official Rev. Pierre van den Heever and lawyer Essa Moosa.
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