Business Day: Kennedy Road Truth Being Hidden

Business Day
Published: 2009/10/07 06:37:17 AM

Kennedy Road Truth Being Hidden

African National Congress (ANC) stalwart and transport, community safety and liaison MEC Willies Mchunu has been sending out many press statements and holding a number of press conferences lately. The recurrent theme is that there is some sinister “forum” associated with Abahlali base Mjondolo president Sbu Zikode and that it was this “forum” that carried out the recent mob attacks in the Kennedy Road settlement in Durban, which killed at least four people and displaced as many as a thousand others.

The truth is that no such forum has ever existed at Kennedy Road, and that the term only began to be used after the MEC sent out a press statement on the 28th blaming the “forum” for the attacks. Instead of some forum, what existed before the attacks was the elected Kennedy Road Development Committee and its many subcommittees, including the safety and security committee. But this subcommittee was elected and it was not terrorising community members. Instead, this committee was carrying out the mandate of the concerned majority of Kennedy Road who wanted the illegal shebeens to close at 10pm rather than go on for 24 hours.

I know that no sinister forum existed because I lived in Kennedy Road for weeks. I myself have had to listen to music blaring at 3am and worry about night-time shack fires caused by drunken patrons.

After talking to numerous residents this past week, I can only conclude that Mchunu is either misinformed or straight-out lying — and that the eight people arrested this past week were innocent Abahlali leaders, many of whom were victims in the recent attacks.

It is obvious to anyone who has spent a lot of time at Kennedy Road and has spoken to the community itself that the MEC’s story makes no sense and that the only real explanation for the attacks was that they were orchestrated by the local branch of the ANC.

It also follows that the MEC is either hiding this or was involved in the attacks in the first place.

The MEC has demanded that the leaders of Abahlali baseMjondolo come to Kennedy Road for a meeting with “stakeholders”. However, many people I know have been told that if they return to Kennedy Road, they will be killed. How can people be expected to attend a meeting called by the very people who want them dead?

The only way out of this impasse is for the national government to call an independent investigation. This has already been demanded by more than 20 civil society organisations, but has been refused by the MEC.

Jared Sacks

Executive Director, Children of SA