Jackson Gumede Arrested

Jackson Gumede Arrested

We have been informed that Jackson Gumede was arrested on Friday night and charged with theft while trying to transport stolen building materials, provided for relief after fires, from the Lacey Road settlement (also known as the Sparks Road settlement) to his farm.

Gumede is the unelected strongman that has ruled the Lacey Road settlement in Sydenham for many years. He is also the chairperson of the Branch Executive Committee of the ANC in Ward 25 in Durban. We have been told that he was voted out of this position but has refused to accept the election as legitimate and that there is currently contestation around his position within the ANC.

Gumede has never allowed political freedom in the Lacey Road settlement and in 2006 one of our militants and important shack intellectuals was publicly and repeatedly threatened with death by Gumede if he continued his membership of Abahlali baseMjondolo. Since then Gumede has made it clear that no one will be allowed to wear a red shirt in Lacey Road and we have never been able to hold meetings there openly. Gumede was a key figure in the attack on our movement in the nearby Kennedy Road settlement in September last year and in the take over of the settlement and our offices by the ANC that followed the attack.

According to our information some members of the community in Lacey Road organised themselves secretly and then mobilised themselves to persuade the police to act against Gumede’s theft of building materials supplied as relief after fires. The supply of building materials after fires is one of the small but important victories won for shack dwellers by the struggle of our movement and it is sad to see that even our victories can become part of the patronage machine of the local ANC.

We are told that Gumede was arrested on Friday and that the Ward 25 Councillor, the notorious Yakoob Baig, bailed him out. We are told that Gumede will appear in court on Monday.

At the moment our information is sketchy but if there are any errors in this statement we will correct them when we can.

We commend the people in Lacey Road for standing up to Gumede and we commend the police for acting as public servants and against the comrade-ism that is ruining the country. We hope that there will be a fair process in the courts from here onwards.

Gumede is armed and dangerous and we are therefore not putting any individual as the contact person for this press release.