Bishop condemns “politically motivated” trial of amaMpondo in KZN

Paul Trewhela

The Anglican Bishop of Natal , the Right Reverend Rubin Phillip – a colleague of the murdered Steve Biko in the Black Consciousness Movement of the early 1970s – has criticised a “politically motivated” trial in Durban of 12 members of the shackdwellers’ organisation, Abahlali baseMjondolo (AbM).

In effect, Bishop Phillip has accused the state of staging the first major political trial in South Africa since the end of apartheid.

The first week of the trial took place in Durban between Monday 29 November and Friday 3 December, following a chain of remands after the accused were arrested at the end of September last year. They were then given a further remand until May next year, a year and a half after their arrest.

Describing the prosecution as a “politically-driven abuse of the systems of law and justice,” Bishop Phillip – who was house arrested for three years by the apartheid state in the 1970s – argued that in this trial the state was “trying to use the systems of law and justice to achieve party-political agendas.”

The 12 accused men – all amaMpondo – were arrested after a violent attack on a community of AbM members at Kennedy Road in Durban on the nights of 26 and 27 September last year, when a gang of about 40 men demolished shacks belonging to AbM members shouting: “The AmaMpondo are taking over Kennedy. Kennedy is for the AmaZulu.”

AbM reported immediately after the attack that the gang had been armed with guns, bush knives and even a sword. Two men were killed in the attack, which took place while some AbM members were taking part in the traditional Imfene dance.

The “Kennedy 12” are charged with public violence, assault and murder, following arrests made by police the next day. No member of the attackers has been arrested or charged.

In an emergency statement issued after the first night of the attack, AbM stated that it had been “planned and organised by Gumede, from the Lacy Road settlement, who is the head of the branch executive committee of the local ANC. He is a former MK soldier and is armed.”

The great-grandson of indentured labourers from Andhra Pradesh in India brought to the sugar cane fields of Natal by the British colonial authorities, Bishop Phillip issued his statement last week at the end of the first five days of the trial, which began 14 months after the defendants were arrested.

According to Bishop Phillip, no witness so far in the trial has credibly linked any of the accused to any crime they were charged with. He recalled that as early as November last year he had publicly stated: “Justice has been delayed far beyond the point at which it was clear that it had been denied. … It is patently clear that there was a political dimension to the attack and that the response of the police has been to pursue that political agenda rather than justice.”

To observers in the court, he continued, it appeared that the witnesses “were in all probability:

* pressured and lured by a police investigating team under enormous political pressure to use the tragedy of September 2009 as a vehicle to attempt to discredit an independent social movement, Abahlali baseMjondolo;

* instructed simply to point out known members of a pre-existing (and SAPS recognised) local residents safety committee (which had links with the Kennedy Road Development Committee, which in turn had links with Abahlali);

* and induced to sign statements written for them by the police.”

Immediately after the attack in September 2009, Bishop Phillip noted, AbM had called for a “full and independent Commission of Enquiry” into all the facts and circumstances surrounding the events of that night. He had supported that call, which he repeated in his statement, and had been “joined by many eminent supporters.”

As the prosecution case unfolded last week, he stated, it was clear that what had taken place was a “heartless exploitation of the poor to further the agendas of the powerful.” A political agenda had “trumped concerns with truth and justice – and it’s falling apart in court.”

Bishop Phillip also criticised the coverage of the court case in the media, in which he said that the public was “not being well served.” SAPA reports had so far conveyed “nothing of the way in which the prosecution case in fact appears to be unravelling under the inherent weight of its own contradictions and cross-examination.”

Earlier this year, the Diakonia Council of Churches – the coordinating body of Christian churches – conferred its highest award on Bishop Phillip when it gave him the Diakonia Award at a ceremony in Durban Town Hall on 12 August, noting that he had been a fighter for justice since his involvement as a young man in the struggle against apartheid in the 1960s.

An early leader of the Black Consciousness Movement, he was deputy president in 1969 of the South African Students’ Organisation – the organisation that initiated the Soweto students’ protest of 16 June 1976 – when Steve Biko was its president.

As chairman of the Durban work of the Dependents’ Conference of the South African Council of Churches, he had helped to provide material, financial, psychological and spiritual support to political prisoners on Robben Island, as well as their families.

In the 1980s, as Canon Rubin Phillip, he was involved in a successful struggle to prevent forced removal of families from Clairwood in Durban .

The citation for the Diakonia award noted that with the demise of apartheid, Bishop Phillip “did not retire from working for justice.” In the midst of all the jubilation celebrating the fall of apartheid, it stated, he prophetically saw human rights violations, corruption, and the self-enrichment of new elites “looming on the horizon.”

In April 2008 he successfully helped to obtain a court interdict preventing arms shipments from China “destined for the brutal regime in Harare , with its history of blatant violations of human rights”, from being transported through South Africa .

The same year he campaigned for the protection of foreign nationals when the wave of xenophobic attacks took place across the country, and helped to make sure that they received shelter and support from churches and civil society organisations.

He was honoured last year with the International Bremen Peace Award in the category of Public Engagement towards Justice and Peace.

Bishop Phillip was given the Diakonia Award to thank him for his “devoted service to human rights, to justice and to democracy through many long years – from the days of the struggle against apartheid to the struggle against poverty, corruption and injustice.”