Category Archives: The Kennedy Thirteen

Carta: Ancora violenze e intimidazioni contro il movimento Abahlali

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http://www.carta.org/campagne/dal+mondo/africa/18983

Ancora violenze e intimidazioni contro il movimento Abahlali
Francesco Gastaldon
[27 Novembre 2009]

Altre case di attivisti sudafricani sono state distrutte nell’insediamento di Kennedy Road, a Durban, mentre i «Kennedy 13» arrestati in settembre continuano ad essere trattenuti senza processo.

Durban, Sudafrica. La repressione e la violenza contro il movimento di «shack dwellers» Abahlali baseMjondolo [«quelli che vivono nelle baracche» in lingua zulu] non si ferma. Il teatro delle violenze è ancora una volta l’insediamento informale di Kennedy Road, dove Abahlali aveva il suo ufficio centrale e dove vivevano alcuni dei principali leader del movimento fino al 27 settembre. Come Carta ha raccontato, la notte fra il 26 e il 27 settembre, mentre era in corso un’assemblea notturna, una folla di circa quaranta persone aveva assaltato il vicino insediamento di Kennedy Road, gridando slogan contro i leader di Abahlali e distruggendo le loro case. Da quel giorno, vari membri del movimento, fra cui i suoi leader principali, vivono in clandestinità con le loro famiglie.

La sera del 20 novembre le case di due leader del Kennedy Road Development Committee [Krdc, la sezione di Abahlali a Kennedy Road] sono state distrutte da uomini non ancora indentificati. Le poche proprietà che le famiglie non erano ancora riuscite a recuperare sono state rubate. La famigerata polizia di Sydenham, responsabile degli attacchi a Pemary Ridge di dieci giorni fa [vedi link a fianco], non è intervenuta e non ha identificato alcun responsabile.

Secondo il comunicato di Abahlali, i responsabili sono gli stessi che hanno attaccato il movimento la notte del 26 settembre, che hanno cacciato i rappresentanti eletti del movimento e che hanno «costituito un nuovo comitato legato all’African national congress [Anc, il partito-Stato al governo]» per gestire la vita della comunità. Ci siamo recati a Kennedy Road pochi giorni dopo gli attacchi, in una situazione ancora molto tesa. Uno dei pochi residenti legati ad Abahlali che vive ancora nell’insediamento [decine di famiglie hanno abbandonato Kennedy Road da fine settembre ad oggi] si guarda intorno circospetto e ci dice sussurrando che «la situazione e’ ancora molto pesante».

Le nuove violenze a Kennedy Road avvengono in un clima di forte attesa per la sorte dei «Kennedy 13», i membri e simpatizzanti di Abahlali arrestati nei giorni successivi al 26 settembre e accusati di vari crimini fra cui omicidio, violenza pubblica danneggiamenti. In pratica, invece di indentificare e arrestare i membri della folla armata che ha attaccato Abahlali a Kennedy Road, la polizia ha arrestato tredici persone legate al movimento, alcune delle quali si trovavano a chilometri di distanza la notte degli attacchi. Ma la vicenda giudiziaria dei Kennedy 13 è ancora più scandalosa. I tredici arrestati sono detenuti in una delle peggiori prigioni della città, in attesa che venga formulata contro di loro una chiara imputazione.

Dall’inizio di ottobre, i Kennedy 13 sono apparsi per sei volte in tribunale per chiedere che venga concessa loro la libertà su cauzione fino a quando non verrà celebrato il processo. Per sei volte, il giudice ha rimandato la decisione, senza concedere né respingere la richiesta di libertà su cauzione.

La vicenda giudiziaria ha attirato l’attenzione di vari leader religiosi, che la settimana scorsa hanno organizzato una manifestazione di preghiera fuori dal tribunale, per testimoniare la loro solidarietà agli arrestati e alle loro famiglie. Fra questi c’era il vescovo anglicano di Durban, Rubin Phillip, miliante anti-apartheid e leader a suo tempo del movimento del Black Consciousness di Steve Biko. In un durissimo comunicato, Phillip ha dichiarato che la vicenda è «uno scandalo legale e morale». Secondo Phillip «i Kennedy 13 sono detenuti da due mesi senza processo e senza alcuna prova contro loro», insomma si tratta di un «un processo politico, in cui le normali procedure che regolano l’amministrazione della giustizia non sono seguite». Nello stesso comunicato, il vescovo si unisce alle richieste di Abahlali per una commissione di inchiesta indipendente sui fatti del 26 settembre. La nuova udienza per i Kennedy 13 è programmata per oggi, venerdì 27 novembre.

Protest in Cape Town Against State Repression

Abahlali baseMjondolo of the Western Cape
Press Statement, Friday 27 November 2009

Protest Against State Repression to be Held at at Macassar Village Tomorrow

We will be holding a protest against state repression at New Road, Maccassar Village, from 11:00 on Saturday 28 November 2009.

Our movement is under serious attack in Durban. Our comrades in Abahlali baseMjondolo in Durban have been attacked and had their homes destroyed by an armed ANC militia supported by the local police and politicians. They have also been arrested, denied bail, beaten while in custody and attacked and seriously beaten by the police while going about their ordinary activities in their communities. Many of our comrades are living under death threats and have been turned into refugees. Many of our comrades are no longer able to appear in public in Durban. There have been longstanding problems with democracy in Durban but it is now clear that there is no longer any democracy in Durban. Durban ceased to be a democratic city on 26 September 2009 when this wave of violent repression was launched against our movement.

This is the worst case of state repression in post-apartheid South Africa but it is far from the first case. Over the years all of the movements in The Poor People's Alliance have had their marches banned and been subject to arrest, assault and even torture at the hands of the police. We are all very familiar with rubber bullet, tear gas, holding cells and courts. We all confront regular illegal and violent evictions at the hands of the state. Here in Cape Town Abahlali baseMjondolo has recently confronted mysterious violent attacks, illegal and violent evictions from the state and arrests and police violence. Neither the criminalistion of the poor nor the criminalisation of dissent are new.

Our protest is in support of our comrades in Durban and we are demanding the immediate restoration of democracy in Durban. We also support the demand for an independent inquiry into all the attacks on our movement in Durban including those from both the militia and the police.

Our protest is also in defence of our own struggle here in the Western Cape. We also face repression here and it is clear that if we allow democracy to be done away with in Durban it will not be long before democracy is also done away with in Cape Town, in Johannesburg and across the country.

Silence is the speech of the defeated. We are not defeated and we will not be defeated. We are organised and we will remain organised. South Africa belongs to all who live in it and therefore we will continue to take our place in the cities and in all discussions affecting our communities and our lives. Our position is that each person's life and intelligence counts the same and no ward councillor, police officer or land invasions unit will succeed to make us deviate from this position.

For more information and comment please contact:

Mzonke Poni: 073 256 2036
Mthobeli Qona: 076 875 9533

http://www.khayelitshastruggles.com/
abmwesterncape[at]abahlali.org

Churches want justice

http://www.witness.co.za/index.php?showcontent&global[_id]=31596

Churches want justice
25 Nov 2009
Jared Sacks

BISHOP Rubin Phillip, one of the most respected Christian leaders and anti-apartheid activists in South Africa, last week published a landmark statement calling the court proceedings of the Kennedy 13 “a moral and legal outrage that amounts to detention without trial by means of delay”. He has also used the words “kangaroo court”, “political agenda” and “a travesty of justice” to describe the legal process.

He, like many others, has called for the immediate release of the Kennedy 13 and for an independent inquiry into the attacks. The leaders of the Catholic, Anglican and Methodist churches in KwaZulu-Natal, along with 40 other clergy, were present at the Durban Magistrates’ Court on November 18. They have now all united in support of the Kennedy 13 and have decided to set up their own inquiry because of the government’s refusal to do so.

This is a watershed moment in South Africa. For the first time since apartheid, the church has united in support of justice for the oppressed.

But the attacks are spreading. Last week, another Abahlali baseMjondolo-affiliated settlement was attacked. They were not attacked this time by an African National Congress-affiliated mob like the one which attacked Kennedy Road. This time they were attacked by Sydenham South African Police Service members. Police arrested 13 residents who were released days later­ after no evidence was presented in court. They beat and shot at other residents with live ammunition, injuring at least 15 people.

There is documented proof, statements, gory photographs and bullet holes in people’s shacks attesting to severe police brutality at Pemary Ridge Informal Settlement. Still not a single mainstream newspaper bothered to investigate the attacks. Not a single government official questioned the motives of the police.

It seems Kader Asmal’s opposition to the militarisation of the police has come too late. Police have already declared war on South Afri­ca’s poor.

Has the ANC forgotten its persecuted past when its members were arrested, beaten and tortured? Why then has it framed the Kennedy 13 for their association with Abahlali baseMjondolo and then protested to have bail postponed now for the sixth time? In six bail appearances, the prosecutor still has not presented the presiding magistrate with any evidence linking the murders in September to the Kennedy 13.

Yet there is plenty of evidence that the mob currently controlling Kennedy Road settlement attacked the Abahlali youth camp on September?26 and then proceeded to purge Kennedy Road of Abahlali leaders. All this while the Sydenham SAPS reportedly cheered them on.

I did not want to speak out again. After my last article calling for an independent inquiry into the Kennedy Road attacks, some intimidating individual called me saying he was from the “South African Secret Service” and was investigating my gender and nationality because of my article criticising MEC Willies Mchunu’s role in framing the Kennedy 13.

Although it was clearly a lie (if he was really from an intelligence agency, he would already know that I am male and was born in Johannesburg), it was nonetheless a bit nerve-racking.

But the intimidation against me is nothing compared to the serious death threats that others have received.

People close to the violence are afraid to speak up for fear of being targeted. Community workers from the outed Clare Estate­ Drop-in Centre (a children’s organisation that operated in Kennedy Road until the attacks) are terrified to even mention that they carry­ Abahlali membership cards. Shack dwellers, activists and even some clergy still live with the day-to-day fear that they will be targeted for supporting the movement.

Recently, family members of the accused Kennedy 13 have had to resort to asking the clergy to mobilise­ and guarantee them safe passage from drunk and belli­gerent ANC protesters at the Durban­ Magistrates’ Court because the police refused to protect them.

What is freedom of speech when your voice brings with it threats to your safety? What is freedom of association when you have to watch your back because of it?

The Kennedy 13. The Pemary Ridge 13. When intimidation through arrest, corruption and police brutality are being met with silence from the national government, you know our democracy is being perverted. The provincial ANC has ignored these problems for years.

How many more Abahlali members are going to be attacked, beaten and arrested before we acknowledge that something is truly rotten in the police state of eThekwini?

• Jared Sacks is the executive director of the Children of South Africa.

Daily News: Bail delayed for sixth time

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http://www.dailynews.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=5252356

Bail delayed for sixth time
Prayer meeting in support of detained Kennedy Road 13

November 19, 2009 Edition 2

SLINDILE MALULEKA

THERE is still no decision on whether bail will be granted to the 13 people accused of the murder of two people living in the Kennedy Road informal settlement.

Yesterday magistrate B Mbulawa of the Durban Regional Court adjourned the matter to next week for an identity parade to be held, and to give judgment.

She has been expected to give judgment on five previous occasions. However, each time Mbulawa has said she has not been in a position to do so since she did not have sufficient evidence on which to base her decision.

Before the court proceedings, the Diakonia Council of Churches held a prayer meeting outside court, led by Anglican Bishop Rubin Phillip, in support of the accused.

Defence advocate Terence Seery said it was not fair on the accused because they had been remanded since September. The bail application, he said, was urgent.

“The court has had enough time to investigate the matter. The investigation must be a fair process and in this case, it has not been so,” he said.

Mbulawa said an ID parade was necessary because not all the accused were facing the same charges, and this would help clarify what charge each accused faced.

“I asked for the ID parade to be conducted to know which accused did what,” Mbulawa said. She said the matter was still under investigation and the ID parade would be a part of the process. “This is a highly sensitive matter,” she said.

According to the state, ethnic issues had contributed and some accused belonged to a safety forum.

However, Seery objected to the way the ID parade was going to be conducted.

He questioned why the suspects could not be granted bail before these were held, and emphasised that they should be done in a procedurally correct manner. These should be done in a facility equipped with one-way glass.

Prosecutor Blackie Swart said the police should be given a further opportunity to hold the ID parade because it was impossible for the court to make a decision.

“The ID parade would help to identify specific suspects accused in the case. From there it would be clear how the bail application would be granted,” he said.

The suspects would remain in custody at the Sydenham Police Station.

Mercury: Shack dwellers falsely arrested, says bishop

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http://www.themercury.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=5251648

Shack dwellers falsely arrested, says bishop

November 19, 2009 Edition 1

Kamini Padayachee

CLERGY from the Diakonia Council of Churches gathered outside the Durban Magistrate’s Court yesterday to pray for 13 people charged with killing two men at the Kennedy Road informal settlement in Sydenham, Durban.

The council has come out in support of the 13 men, claiming that police had falsely arrested the members of shack dwellers’ movement, Abahlali baseMjondolo. In a statement released on Tuesday, Anglican Bishop Rubin Phillip said the police had arrested victims of violence at the settlement, instead of the perpetrators.

“The militia that have driven the Abahlali baseMjondolo leaders and hundreds of families out of the settlement is a profound disgrace to our democracy,” said Phillip. “The fact that the police have systematically failed to act against this militia, while instead arresting the victims of their violence and destruction, is cause for the gravest concern.”

The men are charged with two counts each of murder, attempted murder, robbery with aggravating circumstances and assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm, and additional charges of public violence and malicious damage to property in connection with a September 26 attack at the settlement, in which two people were killed.

The men have all applied for bail, which magistrate B Mbulawa would rule on later this month. Two weeks ago, the bail application was adjourned because Mbulawa said she could only make a ruling if an identification parade was held and she was made aware of which accused were charged with which crimes.

However, yesterday advocate Terrance Seery said his clients had refused to take part in the parade because it would have been a farce.

He said the State had been given sufficient time to hold proper parades.

The case was adjourned to November 27 for the parades to be held and for judgment on bail.