12 September 2006 11:50 PM

DEMOCRACY IN TATTERS IN DURBAN
SYDENHAM POLICE LAUNCH SAVAGE ATTACK ON DEMOCRACY

On Monday 4 September the shack dwellers movement Abahlali baseMjondolo used the Promotion of Access to Information Act to demand that City Manager Sutcliffe tell them, in concrete detail, what the city’s plans are for them. The next day Mxolisi Nkosi, the HOD in the Dept of Housing, called Abahlali in to berate them and demand that they cease speaking to the media. Abahlali asserted their refusal to be silenced all over the media spectacular out arguing Departmental Spokesperson Lennox Mabaso in two major radio debates. The next day S’bu Zikode, president of Abahlali, got a visit from the NIA. Nonhlanhla Mzobe, a key Abahlali activist, found that her boss at Durban Solid Waste had received a letter from the local councillor, Yakoob Baig and the head of the BEC of the ANC, Nicodemus, demanding that Nonhlanhla be fired for supporting the ‘red shirts'. Yesterday Abahlali, together with community organisations from the Municipal flats in Wentworth and Chatsworth, protested outside the ICC wearing t-shirts demanding that the state “Talk to Us, Not For Us.” Again this put them all over the newspapers and radio.

Tonight Abahlali were invited to be on P4 radio from 18:00 to 19:00. They had recently raised some money via a 16 team football tournament to help with the transport between the Abahlali settlements and branches across Durban, Pinetown and now ‘Maritzburg. Some of this money was used to hire a small car, a Tazz, to help with all the getting round for radio interviews, meetings and so on in the hours after taxis have stopped running. At around 17:40 S’bu Zikode (President), Philani Zungu (Deputy President) and Mnikelo Ndabanakulu (PRO) got into the car to leave for the radio interview. While the car was still stationary, officers from the Sydenham police station, notorious for its corruption, brutality and anti-African racism, pounced. They thrust guns into the faces of the Bahlali and accused them, in a highly racialised manner, of driving a stolen vehicle. The cops ordered the three men out of the car. When they saw that Mnikelo was wearing a red Abahlali T-shirt they pulled it off him, insulted him, pushed him around, threw the shirt into the mud, made a great show of standing and spitting on it and announced that ‘there will be no more red shirts in Sydenham’.

S’bu Zikode politely but firmly told them that they had no right to act like this and suggested that this was racist political intolerance. He was assaulted. Philani was also assaulted as the two were bundled into the van. The police picked up Mnikelo’s red shirt and said they were taking it to use as a mop. By the time Philani arrived at the police station he was bleeding from a head wound.

Mnikelo, S’bu’s wife Sindi, Philani’s mother Ma Zungu and a handful of others soon got to the nearby police station. They were denied entrance, sworn at and racially abused in English and Fanakalo. Numerous policemen stated that S’bu Zikode and the red shirts would be driven out of Sydenham. Someone sent an SMS to P4 radio explaining that their guests were under arrest. This was announced on air. Bahlali started arriving from all over Durban and Pinetown. There was soon a crowd of around 40. People waited on the side of the road. There was no toyi-toying and no threatening behaviour of any sort. Niren Tolsi from the Mail & Guardian arrived on the scene.

Access to the prisoners and medical attention for Philani was asked for, but denied. The police refused to say what the charge was.

In Kennedy Road there was a mass meeting on the hall. More than 500 people squeezed in and more waited outside. An SMS was sent to people at the police station to see if bail was possible. The police said that there would be no bail. When this was conveyed to the meeting a group of women in the front decided to march to the police station.

Within minutes of people getting onto the road the police arrived. They gave no warnings to disperse and began shooting with rubber bullets and live ammunition. They even used live ammunition in the hall. Anyone on the road or even moving between the shacks was shot at. At least one person, a women in her 50s known as Zinovia was shot in both legs. She managed to make it to the Kennedy Road office under the hall where she got some care. Niren Tolsi moved down to the settlement where he witnessed what happened next.

Back at the police station there was a glimpse of S’bu and Philani lying face down on the floor handcuffed and bound at the feet. Mnikelo’s red shirt was lying on the floor next to them. A few people started gaining access to the charge office. A whiteboard with the heading of ‘Suspicious Behaviour’ listed ‘3 Black Men Driving a Tazz’ at the top. It was announced that S’bu and Philani were to be charged with assaulting a police officer. This is a ludicrous charge. Numerous people had witnessed the unprovoked and highly racialised police assault in the Kennedy Road settlement.

Word was received that the police were continuing to shoot at the settlement and that there had been some attempt at a fight back with stones and bricks. Zikode got access to his cell phone and sent out two messages “Please look after Sindi!” (Sindi is his wife) and “Nayager has satisfied himself with us. Too tough with Philani.” (Nayagar is the notorious station commander with a record of racist violence towards Abahlali.) Zikode was assured that Sindi was ok and asked if he wanted people to protest outside the police station, as they were determined to do, or to make a tactical retreat in the hope of calming the police down. He replied “Up to them! I am fighting for them. Not for myself.”

Suddenly a group of white men in camouflage print uniforms with camouflage webbing hanging down from their shoulders arrived all pumped up with adrenalin and a will to violence. They began threatening the people outside the police station with their guns. They jabbed people with the guns and threatened to shoot. They declared that the collection of about 40 people was an illegal gathering and began herding people off with their guns. There were machines guns and shotguns everywhere. But it was negotiated that S’bu’s wife, Sindi, and Philani’s mother, Ma Zungu could stay. The others were moved off with guns being used like cattle prods. One of the policemen shouted, in Fanakalo, ‘Hamba inja! Hamba!’ Rafiq, the notoriously racist and violent local police reservist told anyone who’d listen that ‘The Red shirts must be driven out. These people must go back where they came from’.

Eventually medical attention was secured for Philani. Sindy and Ma Zungu were able to briefly enter the cells. They were then forced to leave the station. While they were in the charge office Station Commander Glen Nayager was on the telephone to journalists telling them the S’bu and Philani had assaulted a police officer and that people in Kennedy Road had opened fire on the police. These were blatant lies. Last time the Sydenham Police attacked Abahali after Sutcliffe illegally banned a march from the Foreman Road settlement on 14 November 2005 they claimed that Abahlali had started the attack by stoning a car. But the events are recorded on film and the car in question, which belongs to academic Richard Ballard, never had a scratch. It is an incontrovertible fact that the police attacked without warning on that day and then lied about it. Anyone who doubts this can see the film or speak to Dr. Ballard. It seems that they are going to do the same now.

Sindi and Ma Zungu were forced out of the charge office but promised that S’bu and Philani would not be moved. Kennedy Road was still occupied by the police. But around Sydenham small groups of Bahlali were meeting in settlements or in safe places like BP Quickshop in Clare Road where Des D’sa (from Wentworth) and Orlean and Pinky Naidoo (from Chatsworth) arrived to offer solidarity to Mnikelo, still shirtless, and Bahlali looking for a late taxi to get back to Pinetown. A march of the full force of Abahlali, 30 000 people from 34 settlements, on the Sydenham Police Station was suggested. Word came in that S’bu and Philani had in fact been moved – perhaps to CR Swart, perhaps to Cato Manor – the new man at the desk couldn’t really say but they were gone.

S’bu and Philani will appear in the Durban magistrate’s Court tomorrow where they will be welcomed as heroes as they walk up the stairs and into the dock. Abahlali will be there, Wentworth will be there, Chatsworth will be there, important church leaders will be there. The case number is 116/09/2006/

Durban claims to be a world class city are only true if George Bush is world class. This savage assault on democracy has left the city’s reputation in tatters. No stadium or airport can undo what was done tonight. The story of tonight will be told in shacks around the country and in newsrooms from Kampala to New York. There can be no more illusions about the nature of the future that is being built. The poor are expected to shut up as they are moved out of the city and away from any hope for their future. If they try to speak they will come under fire from the police. This is the truth.

For further information and comment please contact

Mnikelo Ndabankulu, 0735656241 – Witness to the initial arrest
Cindy Zikode, S’bu’s wife 0835470474
M’du Hlongwa, Abahlali General Secretary, 0723358966
Nonhlanhla Mzobe, Witness to the Kennedy Road police attack 0760884352
Zodwa Nsibande, Witness to the Kennedy Road police attack, 0834925442
Louisa Mota, Motala Heights Settlement, 0781760088
Fikile Nkosi, Pemary Ridge Settlement, 0842501446

Please note that this is not an official Abahlali press release. Abahlali press releases are prepared after carefully discussion by elected committees. This has been written in haste by one person.