DAILY NEWS PAGE 9 VIEWS&ANALYSIS TUESDAY AUGUST 2 2011 T ABOUT 10.30 on police had been concocted by the evening of Sep- the police. tember 26, 2009, a One witness admitted she A group of armed men, was lying and others were obvi- about 100, many of them ously lying. clearly drunk, began moving ANC no longer a force Another witness said she through the thousands of had been told to give false evi- homes in the Kennedy Road dence, but that she would not shack settlement in Clare Es- do so. She was subject to death tate. threats and was attacked in her They knocked on some home and only saved by the doors and kicked others in. quick reaction of her neigh- They identified themselves as bours. ANC supporters and as Zulus, for democracy in KZN Another witness, a police of- and made it plain that their en- ficer, gave credible testimony emies were leading members of that confirmed, in important the shack dwellers’ movement, respects, the Abahlali base- Abahlali baseMjondolo, who Party still Mjondolo account of events, in- they described as Pondos. cluding the fact that the vio- They demanded that some lence in the settlement was an men join them and assaulted denies attack on Abahlali baseMjon- others. dolo by the ANC. Those who refused to join The State could not find, them were also assaulted. The that its with both bribery and intimi- entirely false conflation of dation in its arsenal, a single Abahlali baseMjondolo, an or- witness to credibly attest to the ganisation that is admirably members veracity of the avalanche of diverse at all levels, with an propaganda issued by the ANC ethnic minority in the city in the wake of the attacks. emerged out of an attempt to The judge made some cast the organisation as a front organised strong comments from the for Cope. bench about the extremely du- Cope had often been bious manner in which the presented in ethnic terms in attack on case had been investigated and Durban at a time when mobili- the obvious dishonesty on the sation in support of Jacob part of the witnesses that stuck Zuma was taking on an overtly Kennedy to the ANC line. ethnic form. The ANC continues to deny, Abahlali baseMjondolo had despite abundant evidence to long been accused of being an Road the contrary, that its members ANC front in IFP areas but is, organised the attack. in fact, firmly independent Hopefully the civil case that from all political parties. settlement, Abahlali baseMjondolo is As the attackers continued bringing against the police will their rampage through the set- allow some of that evidence to tlement, the conflation of Aba- writes be tested in court. hlali baseMjondolo with an eth- But the ANC cannot deny nic minority resulted in that violence was used to drive violence that was both politi- Richard activists from their homes, that cally and ethnically organised. their homes were openly de- The police, usually ready to stroyed and looted, and that swoop on shack dwellers in Pithouse death threats were openly is- spectacular fashion at a mo- sued against activists without ment’s notice, failed to respond any sanction from the police. to numerous and desperate SCENE OF THE CRIME: Tensions flared in the Kennedy Road informal settlement after the mob attack and murder of two people in September 2009. There is now a court record calls for help. that shows clearly that the ised an Orwellian media circus They were arrested and “Let us not,” he insisted, were openly issued. and its alliance”. baseMjondolo, kicking in police investigation into the Fled in the settlement where ANC charged with an astonishing “give crime fancy names, crim- The bail hearings were car- Under the heading of doors, beating people and firing attack was a failed attempt to Most of the people under members from elsewhere pre- array of crimes, including inals are exactly that – crimi- ried out in a way that was “CRIMINAL”, his speech re- live rounds into the home of frame people linked to a social immediate threat hid or fled, tended to be “the community”. murder. nals – and they must be treated patently politicised and patent- ferred to Abahlali baseMjon- activist Philani Zungu. movement rather than an at- but as the night wore on, some Wild and patently untrue alle- At least 1 000 people had to as such.” ly illegal. dolo as: “The element of these tempt to mount a fair investiga- people tried to defend them- gations were made about flee the settlement. More than He declared that “I hate The accused, who became NGO who are funded by the Statements tion into the violence that selves. At times this was organ- Abahlali baseMjondolo. 50 people and, in Durban, the criminals”, and called for com- known as the “Kennedy 12” West to destabilise us, these el- Thirteen people were ar- broke out in the Kennedy Road ised in terms of a defensive eth- The MEC for Safety and Se- previously public activities of a munities to compile lists of after charges were withdrawn ements use all forms of media rested and 15 were injured. All shack settlement in September nic solidarity. curity, Willies Mchunu, and the whole movement with more “criminals”. against one of them, were and poor people (sic).” charges were eventually drop- 2009. By the next morning two provincial police commis- than 10 000 paid-up members in severely assaulted in prison. Before that there had been ped against the 13. The ANC is also in no posi- people were dead. One, who sioner, Lieutenant-General 64 settlements, had to go under- Task The attack on Abahlali extremely violent assaults on The police have never had to tion to deny that its leading of- died with his gun in his hands, Hamilton Ngidi, issued a state- ground. The task team began its baseMjondolo didn’t come out Zikode and Lindela Figlan, the account for the injuries to the ficials presented the largest so- had been one of the leaders of ment declaring that the settle- Abahlali baseMjondolo is- work by summarily announc- of nowhere. chairman of the Kennedy Road 15. cial movement in the country the attack. The homes of the ment had been “liberated”. sued a widely supported call for ing that “the structure that is There had been an ANC Development Committee. On July 18, Mandela Day, the as a criminal organisation elected local committee affili- People without ANC cards the recently retired Chief Jus- called Abahlali baseMjondolo meeting at the settlement at Mzonke Poni, the chairman case against the Kennedy 12 without a shred of evidence to ated to Abahlali baseMjondolo were excluded from public life tice Pius Langa to head a judi- be dissolved” and then pro- which it was said that S’bu of the movement in Cape was thrown out of court. No this effect, issued no statement and those of a number of other in the settlement and death cial commission of inquiry ceeded to invest its energies in Zikode, the national president Town, had also been attacked. credible evidence had been of opposition to the violence prominent people had been threats were openly made that would carefully examine trying to frame the men who of Abahlali baseMjondolo, had The movement had been brought against any of the ac- and extreme intimidation di- destroyed and looted. against a large number of all aspects of the violence in had been arrested after the to be “chased from the area” subject to sustained and often cused on any charge and crys- rected against the leading ac- The ANC, which usually re- activists, with the result that the settlement. attack, while allowing the open because “the ANC couldn’t violent harassment by the tal clear evidence had emerged tivists in the movement, and sponds to the crisis of urban Abahlali baseMjondolo was This call was ignored. In- demolition and looting of the perform as it wanted”. police, between 2005 and 2007. of the State’s attempt to frame sought to summarily disband it poverty with an unconscion- effectively banned in the settle- stead, the provincial govern- homes of Abahlali baseMjon- At the ANC regional gen- The attack on Kennedy Road the men. by decree. able lethargy, moved into ac- ment. ment set up a high-level task dolo activists to continue for eral conference a week before was not the end of the repres- Witnesses contradicted The time when it made tion with remarkable swiftness. Thirteen people, all Xhosa team to investigate what it months without consequence. the attack, the chairman sion confronted by the move- their original statements and sense to consider the ANC in The local ANC seized con- speaking and all linked, in called “criminality”. In a series At the bail hearings of the of the eThekwini region, the ment. each other and some freely ad- KwaZulu-Natal as a democratic trol of the settlement from the various ways, to Abahlali of thundering press state- men arrested after the attack, late John Mchunu, warned On November 14 that year mitted that the police had told force has passed. elected structures that had baseMjondolo, were pointed ments, Mchunu sought to pres- ANC supporters, some armed, against “counter revolution- the police attacked the Pemary them who to point out in the governed it. out by the local ANC as being ent Abahlali baseMjondolo as a came to court hearings aries … colluding with one Ridge settlement in Reservoir line-up. Credible testimony was l Pithouse lectures politics at The provincial ANC organ- responsible for the violence.