Category Archives: Yakoob Baig

ANC Intimidates Witness X, More Intimidation and More Killing in Kennedy Road

23 December 2010
Abahlali baseMjondolo Press Statement

ANC Intimidates Witness X, More Intimidation and More Killing in Kennedy Road

The attack on Abahlali baseMjondolo in the Kennedy Road settlement in September last year was followed by serious intimidation against the movement in the settlement. People were forced to denounce the movement, any support for the movement put people at serious risk and organising in the settlement had to go underground. Homes continued to be destroyed until July this year and people had to be able to show ANC cards to access food vouchers for senior citizens and social relief as well as the building materials that, after the struggle of our movement, are now made available to people after shack fires. Building material was even given to ANC members whose shacks hadn’t burnt. Death threats were made against numerous people including AbM leaders not living in Kennedy Road. These death threats were often issued in public, such as at the court appearances for the Kennedy 12 (who were at first the Kennedy 13).

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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.

All We Want is Justice

Click here to read this statement in French.

30 November 2009
Abahlali baseMjondolo Press Statement

All We Want is Justice

The Kennedy Thirteen were back at court on Friday for their 6th attempt at requesting bail. After two months in detention all charges were dropped against one of the thirteen, six were given bail and the other five were remanded in custody to give the police one more chance to bring some evidence against them to the court. The next court date has been set for 11 December 2009. This will be the 7th opportunity given to the police to provide some evidence of guilt.

As usual Jackson Gumede and Yakoob Baig were at the court and openly advising the prosecution. Gumede is the chairperson of the Branch Executive Committee of the ANC in Ward 25 and the man who seized control of the Kennedy Road settlement on 27th September 2009. Baig is the ANC Councillor for Ward 25 who said that ‘harmony’ had been restored after the attack on AbM. He was also at the settlement on 27th September and they both stood by while the homes of the Kennedy Road Development Committee and well known Abahlali baseMjondolo members were systematically demolished. Since the ANC seized control of the settlement extreme intimidation has continued in the settlement, including death threats and threats to demolish more people’s homes. In fact another home was demolished yesterday, on Sunday 30 November. It is a crime to threaten to kill people if they are suspected of not supporting your political party. It is also a crime to demolish someone’s house if they are suspected of not supporting your political party. But these crimes are not investigated. No one is arrested. It is clear that these crimes are carried out with the full support of the local police and the local ANC. Baig and Gumede are, at the very least, complicit with the ongoing and criminal political intimidation in the Kennedy Road settlement. Yet they are able to advise the prosecution. It is clear that the police and the court are there for the ANC and not for the people.

The magistrate said that there would be an investigation as to whether there was an Abahlali meeting before the attack. She made it sound like holding a meeting would be a clear sign of guilt. But of course there was an Abahlali meeting! It was the Abahlali Youth League Camp that was attacked! Will all of us who were at that meeting now qualify to be arrested? Holding meetings is not a crime. It is attacking meetings that is a crime!

We held the Youth League Camp on 26th September to talk about our needs and our own struggle – nothing else. When the camp was attacked we didn’t know why we were being attacked. We didn’t know who was attacking us. The attack was a total surprise and a total shock. All that we knew was that the attackers were saying that they were going to drive the AmamPondo out of the settlement and that they were going to kill the Abahlali leaders.

The police did not come when we called them. When they did come we were so shocked to see that our own comrades were arrested and not the attackers. Then the ANC politicians came to the settlement. They celebrated the attack. They did nothing to stop the demolition of our member’s houses. Willies Mchunu said that ‘Kennedy Road’ had been liberated. It became very clear who our attackers were.

When we went to court to support our comrades there was no doubt as to who had attacked us. The ANC were there with their flag and in their t-shirts to demand that our comrades be denied bail. Everything was clear.

On that first bail hearing we went to court wearing our full Abahlali uniform. We were stopped at the gate. The securities said that they would only accept 10 people in red shirts to enter the court.

So we had a meeting and delegated ten comrades to go inside the court. When they went inside they found that the court was packed with ANC supporters in their t-shirts. When Councillor Yakoob Baig walked into the court he went straight to the state prosecutor. The prosecutor spoke to the police and then the police came straight to our ten comrades in their red shirts and said that the court was too crowded and that they must leave. That was when we realised that the ANC was not only attacking us with drunk men with guns and knives – they were also going to attack us with the court. Every time when we are going to court they are saying that we who are wearing red shirts can’t go inside but that those who are wearing ANC shirts can move freely.

We came with the strategy of not wearing red shirts but we found that the court was still not fair. Even while the court was in session the ANC supporters were shouting, chanting slogans and even swearing. When the Kennedy Thirteen were being brought in and out of the cells the ANC supporters were standing up insulting, intimidating and trying to assault them. Comrade Sam from Arnett Drive and Mama Ngongoma from Siyanda were physically assaulted in the court. The police did nothing. The magistrate said nothing. Everyone knows that you have to be silent in court. If you talk or your phone rings you are immediately made to leave. Those are the rules by which we must respect the court. But the ANC could do what they liked and no action was taken against them.

The ANC supporters would wait for us outside the court and insult, intimidate and threaten to attack us. The police would not defend us. Roland Vernon from Diakonia intervened to defend us despite insults, intimidation and threats to him. The ANC supporters openly say that the ANC instructed them to kill S’bu Zikode and that they will kill him. They have also threatened many other people with death at the court.

According to our understanding a court, any court, must be neutral. But this court is 100% ANC.

From our understanding everyone has the right to be charged within 48 hours if they are arrested but the Kennedy Thirteen spent two months in prison with no clear charge. Even the magistrate said that she only knew the charges on Friday, the 27th of November.

In fact the magistrate only found out who the Kennedy Thirteen really were on Friday. When the Kennedy Thirteen were arrested the ANC said that they were all members of the Safety & Security Committee (they called it ‘the forum’). At the last hearing even the magistrate was saying that most of our comrades are not coming from the Safety & Security. In fact it is only two who are coming from the Safety – the rest are all Abahlali members.

Yakoob Baig and Willies Mchunu submitted letters to the court asking for bail to be denied. S’bu Zikode wrote a letter in response saying that he knows the thirteen and their role in the community, that they are not dangerous and asking for bail to be granted. The prosecution said that Zikode’s letter must not count because he is no longer a leader. The magistrate repeated this saying that Zikode is no longer President of the Poor because he is no longer living in Kennedy Road. She said nothing about why he had to leave Kennedy Road, why his house was demolished or why he still can’t appear in public in Durban. We want to make it clear that we are poor people and that Zikode is our president.

We as organised shackdwellers want the remaining five comrades to be released. They have been to court six times and the police have failed to bring any evidence against them and to make any case against them. It is not right to detain people when there is no evidence against them.

The Kennedy Thirteen were not treated right in prison. Even their visitors were treated badly. The prison guards would make us wait for hours and hours to see them and then they would only let us see them for two minutes. There wasn’t even time to say Sawubona. You just had to throw the food in the cell and then go. We are worried about how the remaining five will be treated in prison. We are worried about their families.

We want a proper investigation – an investigation that is neutral, that only has the purpose of searching for the truth. We will reject any investigation that is an ANC investigation that only has the purpose of sending the organised poor back to the dark corners of our country – back to silence, back to weakness, back to rule by councillors, back to evictions, back to transit camps, back to rural areas, back to darkness, back to wasting our lives in water queues, back to fires, back to development organised through the barrel of a gun and not negotiation.

After another of our comrades had his home in Kennedy Road destroyed in bright sunlight yesterday we went to the police and we insisted that we must be allowed to lay a charge. For two months the police have not allowed us to lay charges in response to the Kennedy Road attacks and the destruction and looting of homes that followed the attack. But S’bu Zikode has now succeeded in opening a case into the destruction of his home. It is case number: 380/11/2009 Abahlali baseMjondolo has been very encouraged that an officer from the Inanda police station will be investigating this case and others who have lost their homes will be encouraged to also try to lay charges. We invite the media to monitor the investigation of this case. We all need to educate ourselves about the political realities of our country.

All we want is justice.

For further information and comment please contact:

Mama Mkhize 076 579 6198 (isiZulu)
Mazwi Nzimande 074 222 8601 (English/isiZulu)
Mama Nxumalo 076 333 9386 (isiZulu)

The ANC Has Invaded Kennedy Road

The ANC Has Invaded Kennedy Road

zikode's house
S’bu Zikode’s house destroyed by the ANC militia – along with all the houses of AbM leaders in the settlement.

The ANC has invaded Kennedy Road. We have been arrested, beaten, killed, jailed and made homeless by their armed wing. This is what it took for Yakoob Baig and Jackson Gumede to finally take back the settlement.

This was a very well organised crime. It is not just an attack on the KRDC. It is not just an attack on AbM. It is an attack on our politic.

This attack is an attempt to suppress the voice that has emerged from the dark corners of our country. That voice is the voice of ordinary poor people. This attack is an attempt to terrorise that voice back into the dark corners. It is an attempt to turn the frustration and anger of the poor onto the poor so that we will miss the real enemy.

Yakoob Baig says that ‘harmony’ has been restored. For the ANC harmony means their power and our silence. For us our silence means evictions, shack fires, children dying of diarrhoea and the organised contempt that we face day after day. Therefore we have to speak. We have to break the ‘harmony’ that is our silence in the face of our oppression.

Our movement has won many victories. We have forced the state to accept that there will be nothing for us without us. We have forced the state to accept that they must negotiate our development with us. Our politics is a common politics. We have, in many places, raised the common politics above the politicians’ politics. For this some politicians hate us.

And we must not forget that we have exposed the corruption of many senior officials – most recently in Siyanda, eShowe, Mpola and Howick. We have also exposed how ‘housing delivery’ is actually a form of oppression breaking up communities and forcing people into ghettos far outside the cities. We have done this most famously with our case in the Constitutional Court against the Slums Act. That judgment will be coming out very soon.

For all these reasons the strength of the movement, the strength of those who are supposed to be weak and silent and powerless, is taken as a threat.

Our crime is a simple one. We are guilty of giving the poor the courage to organise the poor. We are guilty of trying to give ourselves human values. We are guilty of expressing our views.

Those in power are determined not to take instruction form the poor. They are determined that the people shall not govern.

What prospects are there for the rest of the country if the invasion of Kennedy Road is overlooked?

In this time when we are scattered between the Sydenham jail, hospitals, the homes of relatives and comrades, or even sleeping in the bushes in the rain, we are asking for solidarity. In this time when we do not know if the state will allow us to continue to exist we are asking for solidarity. In this time when we do not know if we will also be attacked in Motala Heights or Siyanda or anywhere else we are asking for solidarity.

Our message to the movements, the academics, the churches and the human rights groups is this:

We are calling for close and careful scrutiny into the nature of democracy in South Africa.

Sibusiso Innocent Zikode
President of Abahlali baseMjondolo (and, consequently, political refugee)
083 547 0474