Category Archives: Nomzamo Mkhize

Sowetan: ANC councillor faces disciplinary hearing

http://www.sowetanlive.co.za/news/2012/07/23/anc-councillor-faces-disciplinary-hearing

ANC councillor faces disciplinary hearing

Hlengiwe Nhlabathi

AN ANC councillor in KwaZulu-Natal, who pleaded guilty to assaulting a critic, is due to be dragged before the party’s disciplinary hearing for ill-conduct.

Sowetan has learnt that the ANC’s provincial leadership has given the Umlazi branch permission to take disciplinary action against Ward 88 councillor Nomzamo Mkhize.

The ANC’s Umlazi branch executive committee sat yesterday to clear the party’s name against a rising perception that it had become a party that “undermined and frustrated” residents.

A source said there had been many complaints against Mkhize.

The final straw was the assault on Thabile Ngcobo, who was walking from a community meeting last Monday after residents had reiterated their call that Mkhize be removed for service delivery related failures.

Mkhize had initially denied any involvement in the assault, claiming she was being wrongly accused.

According to Ngcobo, Mkhize accosted her and questioned her about her attending the “stupid” meeting before she was slapped and kicked and had her T-shirt torn with a knife.

A criminal case of assault was opened and Mkhize was arrested the following day. But the matter was settled out of court.

In a meeting mediated by a social worker, Mkhize promised to pay R1500 within seven days as compensation for her wrongdoing.

Umlazi’s ANC branch secretary Sakhile Ngcobo would not to comment on the disciplinary proceedings, but said Mkhize’s assault on Ngcobo had “embarrassed” the party.

The ANC has been attempting to mend rifts between between Mkhize and Zakheleni residents.

A meeting held recently with lobby group Abahlali BaseMjondolo was derailed when Mkhize walked out, with Abahlali claiming that they had felt undermined by the party’s members.

Ngcobo said the party had managed to secure the presence of the eThekwini municipality chairman of the human settlements committee, Nigel Gumede, for a meeting to be held today.

News 24: Lizoqondiswa izigwegwe ikhansela ngelokushaya

http://isizulu.news24.com/NingizimuAfrika/Lizoqondiswa-izigwegwe-ikhansela-ngelokushaya-20120723

Lizoqondiswa izigwegwe ikhansela ngelokushaya

ohannesburg – Ikhansela le-African National Congress KwaZulu-Natal elavuma icala lokushaya umuntu owayeligxeka, lizovela ngaphambi kwekomidi lokuqondiswa izigwegwe, kubika iSowetan.

Ubuholi esifundazweni bunikeze igatsha eliseMlazi amagunya okushushisa ikhansela laku-Ward 88, uNomzamo Mkhize.

Igatsha leli lizihlangulile ekuziphatheni kwekhansela, imibiko ithi sekukaningi kungena izinkonondo ngokuziphatha kukaMkhize.

Kuthiwa uMkhize wathusa abantu ngesikhathi eshaya uThabile Ngcobo, owabe esemhlanganweni womphakathi, owabe uvumelana ngokuthi uMkhize akhishwe esikhundleni.

UMkhize wawushiya phakathi umhlangano, lokoh kwathukuthelisa abagqugquzeli bomhlangano, okuyinhlangano Abahlali BaseMjondolo, abakhala ngokuthi uMkhize ubabukea phansi ngokushiya kwakhe umhlangano ungakapheli.

Ekuqaleni ikhansela labe liliphika icala.

DLF: Support the Umlazi Occupation

20 July 2012

PRESS STATEMENT: DLF CALLS FOR SOLIDARITY WITH THE OCCUPATION OF THE
ETHEKWINI MUNICIPAL OFFICE IN UMLAZI

In full solidarity with the organised and fighting community of the
Zakheleni shack settlement (in Ward 88 in Umlazi), the Democratic Left
Front (DLF) calls on all other poor communities, trade unions, people’s
organisations and activists in eThekwini to support the ongoing occupation
of municipal offices in Umlazi by the community. We call on progressive
organisations to send activists to be part of the occupation. We call for
support of the popular education activities taking place at the occupation.
We call for material support (food, tents, blankets and other basics) to
provide subsistence to the Zakheleni activists leading the occupation. We
call for support for the weekly People’s Assembly held at 11h00 every
Sunday. This Sunday’s People’s Assembly will prepare for the community
meeting with the eThekwini municipality planned for Monday next week.

The Zakheleni occupation has been ongoing since the beginning of last week.
Despite death threats and attacks by a local hit-squad, the community
daringly expressed their demands including that the useless ANC local ward
councilor, Nomzamo Mkhize, must be removed from her elected position.
Several comrades have also been threatened by this hit squad. Some have
been shot at and physically attacked. The UPM and the AbM are following up
these cases. This has included a Mandela Day protest which forced the
police to arrest some of the accused members of the hit squad. For the past
seven days of the occupation, many people have continued to ask Mkhize for
help and service. She has failed to respond to these requests. She is
disrespectful and people are asked to produce ANC membership cards in order
to get assistance from her.

At the various community assemblies held as part of the occupation, the
people of Zakheleni have resolved that “The Councillor’s office shall be
closed and a new People’s Office will be opened”. The community has also
consistently argued that “We are not interested in party political feuds,
but we are part society and all we need is development”.

The DLF also salutes the Unemployed People’s Movement (UPM) and Abahlali
BaseMijondolo (AbM) for their effective organisation and leadership of the
Zakheleni community struggle. To add support political and organisational
support to the occupation, representatives of DLF-affiliated social
movements in Gauteng joined the occupation on Tuesday. These comrades
include Simphiwe Zwane (elected councilor representing the Operation
Khanyisa Movement in the City of Joburg, Siyabulela Faku (from the Vaal
Community Assembly), General Alfred Moyo (from the Makause Community
Development Forum) and Abraham Molati (from the Zandspruit Democratic Left
Society). The DLF is made up of various community organisations, social
movements, left groups and individual activists all united to build a broad
anti-capitalist front of solidarity, movement-building and struggle to win
poor and working people’s demands. We are united on struggles for universal
access to decommodified basic services, an end to unemployment, end to the
violence against women, and ecological justice.

*ENDS*

FOR COMMENTS, CONTACT:

Simphiwe Zwane (Operation Khanyisa Movement & Gauteng DLF) –

China Ngubane (DLF) – 072 651 9790

Bheki Buthelezi (UPM & DLF) – 072 639 9893

Mazibuko K. Jara (DLF) – 083 651 0271

FXI Condemns scare tactics aimed at surpressing people’s right to protest

http://www.fxi.org.za/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=210

FXI Condemns scare tactics aimed at surpressing people’s right to protest

MEDIA STATEMENT FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

17 JULY 2012

FXI CONDEMNS SCARE TACTICS AIMED AT SUPPRESSING PEOPLE’S RIGHT TO PROTEST

The Freedom of Expression Institute (FXI) is deeply concerned about the alleged assault on freedom of expression by Umlazi Councillor, Nomzamo Mkhize.
According to reports received by the FXI, Ms Mkhize along with a group of her supporters allegedly assaulted and intimidated a member of the local community, Ms Thabile Ngcobo, on July 15 as Ms Ngcobo was returning from a local community meeting.

Ms Ngcobo was allegedly slapped and kicked while being questioned on why she had attended the meeting. He assailants then also took a blade and cut off a T-shirt she was wearing that was promoting FAMWU (the Farm Workers Union).

While Ms Ngcobo has opened up a case of intimidation and assault, no arrests have been made so far.

The FXI regards these actions as a serious assault on Umlazi residents’ right to demonstrate and protest around the grievances in their community. The alleged actions by the councillor and a few of her supporters were clearly meant to scare some residents away from any protest actions or attempts to discuss relevant grievances in that community.

The FXI calls on the police in Umlazi to pursue the case opened by Ms Ngcobo as a matter of urgency and effect the necessary arrests so that any illegal acts of intimidation and assault may cease immediately.

The FXI further endorses a call on the MEC for Community Safety to urgently intervene in this matter so as to ensure speedy and impartial police action in this case.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT RAYMOND LOUW ON 082 4465155 OR RAASHIED GALANT ON 079 5259866

M&G: Mandela Day: You cannot do much in 67 minutes

http://mg.co.za/article/2012-07-19-mandela-day-you-cannot-do-much-in-67-minutes

Mandela Day: You cannot do much in 67 minutes

by Niren Tolsi & Aneesa Fazel

Activists believe a bit of paint does little to make a difference and that honouring Nelson Mandela needs true commitment.

With half the country’s politicians apparently rolling up their sleeves on Mandela Day to paint something – orphanages, old-age homes, schools, anything, really – the obvious, cynical question doing the rounds was: Who received the tender to supply the paint?

Perhaps less obvious was whether these 67 minutes were spent doing something that showed a level of activism worthy of the man Nelson Mandela and the years he spent in prison. Did they actually add to South Africans’ collective commitment to community and community activism? Was July 18, with its deluge of celebrities and politicians gushing about the cathartic and spiritual alignment they experienced while spending 67 minutes watching paint dry an effective tool in reversing the often criticised post-apartheid trend of apathy?

The Democratic Left Front’s Mazibuko Jara believes it was good to get individuals to contribute their time to a cause worthier than themselves, but the actions on Mandela Day “do not help to get communities organised in a sustainable, progressive and transformative way so that these communities can change their lives for themselves”.

“Mandela Day leaves structural issues within communities and becomes a propaganda tool for the government to gloss over systematic problems,” Jara said.

It is a view echoed by Mnikelo Ndabankulu, of the shack-dweller movement Abahlali baseMjondolo, who described it as a “media opportunity for celebrities and politicians”.

Keeping track

“If someone really plans to be an activist, they need a scorecard from July 19 2012 until July 17 2013 to keep track of what they do. Activism is a daily, lifelong thing, not something for just one day.

“Real activism is what we do at an organisational level, working every day to serve people, keep them informed and fighting against injustices like the lack of services in shack settlements, not painting a school for a few hours on one day of the year,” said Ndabankulu.

He spent July 18 helping people in Durban’s Kennedy Road to rebuild their shacks after a weekend fire gutted about 50 homes.

Not because it was Mandela Day, he said, but because it was what he did, having spent the previous week protesting against the pollution by oil refineries in the Durban South Basin, attending all-night prayer meetings and then assisting at Kennedy Road.

Noting that most of the minutes of activism on July 18 revolved around the dishing out of food hampers and donating homes to people, Jara underlined the debilitating effect this sort of action – however well-intentioned – would have on the agency of ordinary communities to organise themselves.

A national effort

“It’s not about building power through communities … It’s still not contributing to the idea of a national effort to address the systematic problems we face,” he said.

At 8am on Wednesday, this was plain to see: politicians kitted out in eThekwini municipality overalls were gearing up for their 67 minutes of Mandela Day “activism”.

It entailed “donating houses in Inanda”, handing out “R100 000 worth of equipment” such as fridges to old-age homes, “donating food parcels” and, of course, painting anything that was not going to move.

Chief whip and former eThekwini deputy mayor Logie Naidoo said: “We will not engender activism in the country if our actions on Mandela Day are not sustainable.”

He said it was important for the ANC to declare the next 10 years “the decade of the cadre” because “the country needs selfless, dedicated and knowledgeable cadres”.

Hegemonic tendencies

The Mail & Guardian pointed out that the ANC’s hegemonic tendencies sometimes hampered community activism. An example was the occupation of the office of Nomzamo Mkhize, councillor for ward 88, by members of Abahlali and the Unemployed People’s Movement, who called for her arrest after she had allegedly physically attacked community activists from those organisations.

Naidoo said he was unaware of the attacks, but the “ANC must be encouraging other civil society organisations to get involved so that we are unified in how we face and deal with the country’s problems”.

For designer Gert-Johan Coetzee, Mandela Day is about the everyday, in little ways: “I am now more aware of doing good and doing it throughout the year. It makes a difference in my life to add value to the lives of others.”

Coetzee spent Mandela Day “joining the protest rally for the activation of micro-loans for women in Africa. This would enable women to take their businesses further.”

He also donated animal food to the SPCA and attended a Save the Rhino event later that evening.

Away from July 18, every year he designs a matric dance dress for an underprivileged pupil.