Monday, 11 March 2019
Abahlali baseMjondolo press statement
The trial for our damages claim from the 2009 attack in Kennedy Road begins at the Durban High Court today
From the moment when our movement was formed in 2005 the ANC claimed that we were ‘the third force’ and treated us as illegitimate. We faced constant repression. Our protests were illegally banned, and attacked when they went ahead in defiance of bans. Numerous people were assaulted and arrested by the police. The police even used force, including serious violence, to prevent us from participating in radio and television talk shows.
In early September 2009 John Mchunu, who was then the chairperson of the ANC in the eThekwini Region, and a strong backer of Jacob Zuma, told the regional general council of the ANC that our movement was a threat to the ANC. He was said that “The element of these NGO [sic] who are funded by the West to destabilise us; these elements use all forms of media and poor people. We know them very well; we have seen them using their power at Abahlali baseMjondolo.”
On the night of 26 September 2009 a group of armed men, who identified themselves as ANC and as Zulu, stormed the community hall where our youth league was holding a camp. They were swearing and throwing stones in the hall attacking Abahlali. They were shouting for S’bu Zikode and said that they would kill him if they found him. They said that Abahlali baseMjondolo was ‘selling Kennedy Road to the amaMpondo’.
Seeing that Zikode was not at the camp held at the community hall they then headed to his house, which they destroyed, after which they attacked the homes of other members of the Kennedy Road Development Committe (KRDC) members and those of the Safe and Security Committee affiliated to Abahlali. This committee was formed in a response to a mandate by women who wanted closing hours to be instituted for shebeens which had started to stay open all night resulting in noise and, also, an escalation in domestic violence.
The group of armed ANC supporters destroyed and burnt the homes that they attacked after looting whatever they could carry away.
This attack continued throughout the night of 26 September and 27 September and the morning of 28 September 2009. Numerous people made ongoing attempts to seek the help of the police but all calls for help were ignored. This attack happened in the presence of state security agencies who chose not to protect people’s lives. They allowed it to continue in broad daylight.
On the night of 26 September two people were killed, many were seriously injured and hospitalised, and hundreds were displaced.
During the attack the first ever offices of Abahlali, which were located in the Kennedy Road settlement, were looted and destroyed. Our library was also destroyed.
After the attack 12 members of Safe and Security Committee whose homes were burnt down, and all of whom were Xhosa speaking people, were arrested and charged with numerous fabricated charges including murder. They became known as the Kennedy 12.
On 28 September the office of Willies Mchunu, the then MEC for Transport, Safety and Community Liaison, issued a press statement stating that “The KwaZulu-Natal provincial government has moved swiftly to liberate a Durban community (Kennedy Road)”.
On Sunday 11 October senior ANC provincial leadership, including Willies Mchunu, together with the police held a press conference in the community hall in the Kennedy Road settlement. ANC supporters from neighbouring communities were bussed in and misrepresented as Kennedy Road residents. They launched a brazen propaganda that said that Abahlali was the cause of the violence.
For months after the initial attacks the homes of remaining Abahlali members were openly destroyed by local ANC supporters on Sunday mornings. People who tried to go to the Sydenham Police Station to ask for assistance were insulted and threatened by the police and chased out of the station.
The Kennedy 12 spent ten months in prison. When the matter finally went to trial the judge threw the case out when the prosecution had finished making its case as it was obvious that the case against the men had been crudely fabricated.
Abahlali is suing the Minister of Police and the Metro Police for damages for the failure to intervene in the attacks on the members of our movement. Lives were lost and many people suffered injuries, trauma, loss of property and damages to their belongings as well as homelessness as a result of the deliberate failure of the police to protect Abahlali members and their families.
The trial is scheduled to begin today and to run until 18 March at the Durban High Court.
Contact:
S’bu Zikode 083 547 0474
Mqapheli Bonono 073 067 3274