Daily Dispatch: AmaMpondo under siege in KZN?

http://www.dispatch.co.za/article.aspx?id=449203

AmaMpondo under siege in KZN?

2010/11/16

IN AN “emergency press release” on Sunday, September 27, last year, the shackdwellers’ organisation Abahlali baseMjondolo (AbM), based in Durban/eThekwini, published a statement about a violent affray that had taken place the previous night at Kennedy Road in Durban.

Now, 13 months later, 12 members of AbM continue to remain on trial charged with public violence, assault and murder, following arrests made by police the next day.

In an earlier article, Undermining of the rule of law in Abahlali case, (see Politicsweb.co.za), I argued that the continual postponement of this trial – always sought by the prosecution, and always agreed by the court – amounted to a denial of justice to the accused. By comparison, the Rivonia Trial in 1963/64 of emeritus President Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu, Govan Mbeki and their colleagues lasted only 11 months from the date on which the accused were charged to the date of their being sentenced, and involved issue of violence no less complex than those in the Abahlali trial.

I argued that the conduct of this trial “suggests a process of breakdown of law in South Africa”. It appeared likely to reveal itself as “the first and most important political trial under the post-apartheid system of government”, threatening a “breakdown of the constitutional structure of South Africa set in place in 1994”.

The most serious dimension to this matter, however, is that during the whole of the 13 months since the affray at Kennedy Road, neither the police, the prosecutorial service, the judge, nor the ANC – whether as political party or as government – appears to have taken notice of very menacing claims made in the emergency press release by AbM, instead preserving what can only be understood as guilty silence.

Over time, this issue has the potential to take South Africa into the realm of violent tribal conflict, in contradiction of the ethic on which the ANC was founded nearly a century ago.

In its statement, AbM alleged that on the night of September 26, 2009, a planned and violent tribalist attack was carried out on behalf of the ANC, as the governing party of South Africa and of the province of KwaZulu Natal.

Irrespective of its source, this allegation could not be more serious. The ANC was accused of launching a violent tribalist assault in which AbM acknowledged two people had been killed, both of them from among the attackers.

The main points in these allegations are as follows:

AbM alleged a “group of about 40 men heavily armed with guns, bush knives and even a sword” had attacked a meeting of the Kennedy Road Development Committee (KRDC) in the Kennedy Road community hall in Durban/eThekwini.

It stated the attack had been “planned and organised by Gumede, from the Lacy Road settlement, who is the head of the branch executive committee of the local ANC. He is a former MK soldier and is armed.”

It stated further: “The men who attacked were shouting: ‘The AmaMpondo are taking over Kennedy. Kennedy is for the AmaZulu.’”

According to a further allegation made by AbM, when arrests were made the next day by the police “only members of the Kennedy Road Development Committee (KRDC) have been arrested and not one of the perpetrators has been arrested.

“All the people who are arrested are amaMpondo.”

A number of points follow from this.

1. These allegations should have been a vital issue for clarification in South Africa. Had there been a similar issue involving whites and blacks, there would rightly have been cries of outrage. By comparison, silence over more than a year concerning allegations of a tribalist issue of this kind is very worrying.

2. This is an issue for every member of the ANC to raise in her or his branch. The truth must be established as to what did take place and what did not take place at Kennedy Road on the night of September 26, 2009. The integrity of the ANC is at stake as a political organisation founded on the principle of forthright opposition to tribalist prejudice, and even more so to violence carried out on a tribalist basis.

3. If the ANC, the government and the courts fail to take up this issue in the spirit of honest inquiry, then efforts should be made to establish an international commission of inquiry composed of independent-minded and respected jurists.

I should further add – it is no credit to themselves that not a single political organisation in South Africa appears to have taken up this issue.

Paul Trewhela was editor of Freedom Fighter, MK’s underground newspaper during the Rivonia Trial. He was a political prisoner between 1964 and 1967. In exile in Britain he was co- editor of the banned journal, Searchlight South Africa