Report on the Return to Kennedy Road Campaign

The historic meeting at the Kennedy Road settlement on Sunday went well despite the intimidation from the local ANC.

The background to this meeting, and its importance, is that in September last year Abahlali baseMjondolo(AbM) and the Kennedy Road Development Committee (KRDC), the openly and freely elected committee in the settlement, were expelled in violent attacks organised through the local ANC and supported by the police and the criminal justice system. For months after the attacks AbM was banned from the settlement. There were regular death threats and known AbM supporters had their homes demolished or burnt. But AbM began to organise underground in the settlement and then openly – always in the face of severe intimidation and personal risk. In some cases people were subject to violence. But when the courage to resist oppression is taken forward by more people and with more commitment than the attempt to maintain oppression the will of the people can slowly prevail.

Despite the fact that our members were openly threatened with death, despite the fact that some were detained for months without bail, despite the fact that the police and high level politicians supported the attacks on us and the repression that followed the attacks, and despite the fact that the homes of our members were destroyed for months our members continued to hold their ground. When they reached the point of being able to organise openly they circulated a petition calling for AbM and the KRDC to return to the settlement. Most of the more than 500 people that signed were women. They made it clear that while they could not guarantee the behaviour of the local ANC or the police they could guarantee that they would stand for our safety.

Sunday’s meeting was called by the brave women in the AbM branch in the Kennedy Road settlement.It was an open and public meeting. The call to attend the meeting was circulated beforehand with pamphlets. It was the first attempt to call an open meeting of the organisations that had been banned from the settlement on threat of death after the attacks.

The meeting was preceded by blatant and serious public intimidation in the settlement. This intimidation was led by Jackson Gumede, chairperson of the Branch Executive Committee of the ANC in Ward 25 and the unelected and highly authoritarian leader of the nearby Lacy Road settlement. For years Gumede has prevented free political activity in Lacy Road with threats of death. It has never been possible to wear a red t-shirt in Lacy Road. When we were attacked in September last year it was Gumede who, with the support of the police and high level politicians, first seized control of the settlement after we had been driven out. Two days after the attack Willies Mchunu, the Safety & Security MEC in KwaZulu-Natal, came to the settlement. At that meeting the violent attack on our movement was celebrated as the ‘liberation’ of the settlement. The politicians claimed that we were trying to ‘stop development’ and that ‘people would have to be jailed in order for development to happen’. They said that high mast electric lighting would be immediately installed and that people would be housed by February 2010. In fact we had been struggling for land and housing since 2005 and in February 2009 we had signed an MOU that committed the Municipality to upgrade the settlement. We had been promised that people who could not be accommodated in the upgrade would be given housing in the Cornubia development in Umhlanga. Mchunu said that a decision had been taken to disband our democratically elected structures. The politicians set up a Community Policing Forum (CPF) to replace the democratically elected structures. The CPF was never elected. It was appointed from the top down. Zandile Mdletshe was appointed as the head of the CPF. She was with Gumede at the settlement from very early on Sunday morning saying that people that attended our meeting would be killed or that their homes would be demolished and that they would be driven out of the settlement. The ward councillor Yakoob Baig was also there.

The police were at the settlement for the whole night on Saturday and they were there on Sunday. They even brought a helicopter but this time they were not there to repress us. They were there to do their jobs without political interference. They were there to keep the peace. They saw what Gumede was doing and they threatened to arrest him. They clearly and publicly stated that they had witnessed the threats from Gumede and Mdletshe and they said that if any one was attacked, or if anyone’s home was burnt that night they would arrest Gumede and Mdletshe.

Before the meeting Mdletshe was going through the settlement with a loudhailer telling people not to attend the meeting and saying that only the ANC has the right to call meetings. But our AbM members like Nozuku Hulushe stood up, despite the threats of the morning and the history of state supported violence and evictions, and said on their loudhailer that everyone is free to call meetings. Some of the AbM members that have been exiled from Kennedy Road since the attacks, like Cindy Mkhize and Zandile Nsibande entered the settlement for the fist time since the attacks and joined Nozuku to make this call for political freedom.

In the end only about 150 people attended the meeting. We received many phone calls and sms of apology from people who said that they could not risk attending the meeting after the threats to kill and destroy people’s homes. But those 150 people who were there were able to hold the first free and democratic meeting at the settlement since the attacks. Together we were able to reoccupy the democratic ground from which we had been evicted. We invited a number of neutral and independent people to attend the meeting so that they could be witnesses to what happened there including church leaders and academics.

The meeting was opened with the national anthem and a prayer by Reverend Mavuso Mbhekeseni.

The meeting was chaired by Mr. Mjozi from the Quarry Road settlement which is in Reservoir Hills in Ward 23. Mr. Mjozi was invited to chair the meeting because he is a democrat respected by both the ANC and AbM. He is the chairperson of the Quarry Road settlement in which both AbM and ANC members are completely free to advance their own politics. The ANC are in the majority there and Mr. Mjozi is not an AbM member but there is complete freedom for AbM members in Quarry Road. The ANC BEC in Ward 25 pressured Mr. Mjozi to withdraw from chairing the meeting. They told him that ‘only the ANC has the right to call meetings in this ward’. Mr. Mjozi is a democrat and he resisted that pressure.

The Kennedy Road AbM branch who had called the meeting were then given the opportunity to explain the purpose of the meeting. They explained that the purpose of the meeting was to call a community assembly in which everyone would be free to openly discuss a way forward for the community.

People were then given the opportunity to speak. The Kennedy Road women spoke very powerfully and very clearly. The main issues that were raised were as follows:

1. The importance of regular, open and democratic meetings: There have been no community meetings held in Kennedy Road since the meeting that the ANC politicians and the Municipality held two days after the attacks – the same meeting in which the attacks against us were celebrated as a ‘liberation’ that would now allow development to proceed. Speakers at the meeting on Sunday said that it is essential that the community return to the practice of regular meetings and that these meetings should be called and controlled by the community.

2. The need for a committee. There has been no development committee in the community since the attacks. There has only been the CPF set up by Mchunu but it was never elected and it does not deal with general community issues or with development issues. There is no one to report problems too. If you go to Zandile Mdletshe she will not even talk to you if you do not have an ANC card. This is undemocratic and it excludes many people. If you do have an ANC card and you need something from her, like a letter to give proof of your address so that you can access a grant or register your children at a school she will charge you R5.

3. The lack of help with problems. There is no one to help the people with their problems. When there are problems like shack fires there is no one to provide any help and no organisation to enable people to work together to help themselves or to take up their demands to the state. Before when there were fires AbM helped people to refuse the amatins, to access building material and even to secure the building materials meant for the amatins and to divert it into self construction. This is very important because when people are forced into amatins, even if they are at the settlement, people loose their land. They surrender their ownership and autonomy to the state. The KRDC has ears to listen and eyes to see.

4. Intimidation. Kennedy Road is no longer a community. Those that hold the authority were given it by the politicians and they are using intimidation to hold onto their authority. They have continued to chase people out of the community and to destroy people’s homes. This intimidation has destroyed the freedom of the people, their sense of community and their ability to organise themselves together as the strong poor. It turns people who were once the strong poor into scared individuals each just hoping to keep their families safe.

5. Electricity. Electricity was tabled as a big problem. There is now intensive disconnection of electricity. The Land Invasions Unit come to disconnect every day – even on weekends. The people of Kennedy Road can’t charge their cellphones, they can’t cook and have light with safety and there are now fires all the time. They won’t be able to watch the World Cup on TV. Even the highmast lighting that Willies Mchunu installed after the attacks has been disconnected to stop people from connecting to it. When AbM and the KRDC were there we organised very safe connections and we were able to use the organised and collective power of the people to stop disconnections. Now the settlement is dark again.

6. Rubbish. The settlement is very filthy. AbM used to organise clean up campaigns. We were able to negotiate with Durban Solid Waste (DSW) to get some skips at strategic areas in the settlement and then to negotiate to get the skips emptied regularly. Now there is rubbish everywhere, the rats are out of control and people are getting sick, especially children.

7. Community organised services. The crèche no longer runs. The HIV/AIDS Centre no longer runs. The hall is not maintained and it is kept locked up.

8. Employment. From time to time certain jobs come to a shack settlement. There might be some work like cleaning toilets or building something. Whenever some work came the KRDC would discuss it at an open community meeting. We would discuss the jobs and the process for allocating them. The people decided that the best way forward was to decide on the criteria for allocating the jobs and then ask everyone to submit their CV. All the CVs would then be put in a box and the right number would be drawn out, at a meeting, like a lottery. Everyone agreed on this process and no one was excluded from this process on the basis of political affiliation. Now there is no public discussion and the jobs only go to Zandile Mdletshe’s friends. Even ANC members who are not her friends cannot get jobs.

9. Development. There have been no meetings to discuss development since the meeting held to celebrate the attacks that drove us out of the settlement. At that meeting high mast lighting was promised and a promise was made to house everybody by February. The lighting was provided but it has now been disconnected. No houses have been provided and there has been no further discussion about housing.

10. The difference between top down party rule and bottom up self-organisation. People can now make a clear and practical comparison between these two types of politics. It is clear which type delivers people to politicians and which type enables people to determine their own future.

After all the contributions from the Kennedy Road people the KRDC was given the platform. Mzwakhe Mdlalose responded by explaining, once more, the progress that AbM and the KRDC had made in negotiations for land and housing. He said that this progress was a key reason for the attacks. He also said that the KRDC had agreed to risk returning to the settlement to meet the people because the KRDC are still citizens in the community. He made some offers to the meeting. He said that the KRC could:

1. Begin to engage DSW around reinstating refuse collection. But he stressed that this would only work if the community could mobilise to organise to take full ownership of the clean up process and that this would require a communal will to do things for themselves including clean up campaigns, constant engagement with DSW and so on. He stressed that without this mobilisation nothing would work. e.g. skips would not be emptied after a while.
2. Raise the issues of corruption with regard to the employment in the settlement.
3. Produce confirmation that they have continued to negotiate with housing officials about the planned Kennedy Road upgrade.
4. Meet with eThekwini Housing officials to discuss a way forward on the Kennedy Road Upgrade. Kennedy Road residents will be included in this meeting.
5. Insist in all negotiations that the promise of housing in the Cornubia development for those that cannot be accommodated in the upgrade by kept.
6. Stand shoulder to shoulder with the people in the settlement in their courageous refusal to hand over the hard won democracy in the settlement to rule by the few by means of intimidation, violence and fear.
7. Return to the settlement if enough people demonstrated their confidence in the KRDC and were willing to guarantee that they would stand up for their safety.
8. Guarantee that if they did return there would be no revenge and that they would not demand the return of stolen goods and destroyed houses. All that they would ask would be that their land should be returned to them so that they can rebuild.
9. Guarantee that they would resolutely resist all attempts to force people into amatins.
10. Watch that when the local government elections come the politicians are not able to claim that they are delivering what has been won by the people’s struggle.

S’bu Zikode was asked to speak to the Ward Councillor, Yakoob Baig, about getting someone else other than Zandile Mdletshe to get the letters that are needed for people to get grants so that the politics can, again, be taken out of this process. He agreed to do this.

The Dlamini King Brothers returned to the settlement and performed there for the first time since the attacks. DJ Fano from Siyanda also performed. It was a healthy environment for a free discussion. People could forget about fear.

The following way forward was agreed on:

1. Those that could attend the meeting would report back to those who were prevented from attending due to intimidation.
2. AbM and the KRDC will start negotiating with the state and other parties on behalf of its members in the settlement.
3. Everyone will work to end the politics of manufactured fear and to defend the rights to free expression and free association in the settlement.

The intimidation did make the meeting smaller but it didn’t shut it down. The door to democracy in Kennedy Road has been reopened. The new rule, instituted after the attacks and backed up with violence, that said that only the ANC has the right to call meetings has been broken. The freedom to discuss matters openly has been defended.

The struggle continues.

For more information, updates and comment please contact:

The Abahlali baseMjondolo office at 031 – 3046420
Nozuko Hulushe (from the internal Kennedy Road AbM Branch): 082 259 5492
Mzwake Mdlalose (from the exiled KRDC): 072 132 8458