AT THE END OF THE BATON OF SOUTH AFRICAN PRETENSIONS

Available at: http://zabalaza.net/2010/12/12/at-the-end-of-the-baton-of-south-african-

pretensions/

by Warren McGregor

October 2010

Post-1994 South Africa is usually seen and promoted as a country of moral and

political exceptionalism. The spawn of negotiations between the bourgeois nationalist

and voluntarily neo-liberal African National Congress (ANC) under the guidance of

Nelson Mandela and the hierarchy of the vicious apartheid state, post-apartheid South

Africa was to provide a shining example of reconciliation and socio-economic progress.

During a few dark days in September 2009 and May 2010, these claims were finally and

mercilessly put to rest. So it seems and has been for those who survive in and who are

social activists at the layer of society most subject to the oppressive nature of the state

and capital: the working class and poor. The Abahlali BaseMjondolo (September 2009),

an organisation of poor shack dwellers based primarily in the Kwazulu-Natal province, and Landless People s Movement May 2010), a shack and rural township dwellers

organisation based in the Gauteng province, suffered attacks at the hands of their fellow

community members. These attacks were designed by local political and business elites

to expel and even murder prominent local activists of both organisations and to

destabilise both organisations and their constructive community work. Most of their

activism is directed against the state and its representatives at a local and municipal

level.

The attacks on social movements and activists should be viewed within a socio-

economic context that sees South Africa as one of the most unequal societies on the

planet (according to its Gini coefficient – the income inequality indicator, literally the

gap between the rich and poor). This inequality persists, bred during the last century

and exacerbated by the ANC government s grasping at neoliberalism. Added to this

cauldron of inequality was the morally criminal and immense spending by the state in

hosting the recent 2010 FIFA Soccer World Cup which revealed what the staging of the

event was designed as and who it ultimately will benefits - a capitalist and corporate

state project for the benefit of the very few (domestically and globally).

The South African elite continues a decades old project of using the repressive

machines of the state in an attempt to quieten, expel and murder those who dare speak

out against it. The death, carnage and misery suffered recently at the hands of the ruling

masters must forever be etched into our memories, collective and individual, as must

the realisation of the desperate need for collective libertarian socialist action,

organisation and struggle towards our desired goals and a truly free society

THE ATTACKS

On the night of September 26 2009, a gang of men heavily armed with guns,

pangas (machetes), sticks and their fists launched an attack on a gathering of the

Abahlali BaseMjondolo (AbM) organisation and the Kennedy Road Development

Committee (KRDC) (an annually democratically elected body of community members)

at the local community hall of the Kennedy Road informal settlement of shack-dwellers

in Durban (in the province of Kwazulu-Natal) [1]. Those at the hall and in its vicinity scattered and calls were made to the local Sydenham police to assist…calls which they

did not respond to (the police excuse was not having enough vehicles available to

respond [2]).

The attackers, having secured the hall, proceeded throughout the night to attack

individuals and the homes of those linked to the organisation (particularly in a search

for two influential AbM figures), AbM members, and relatives of members or

sympathisers. Fuelled by alcohol, they blazed their way through the settlement calling

on all Zulu men to join them, for the removal of the AmaMphondo[3], in clear reference

to prominent AbM organisers and thus their influence in the community, and that

Kennedy Road was for the AmaZulu .

In response, self-defence units were spontaneously formed at around 3am in an

attempt to ward off the attackers and the resulting clash left dozens injured and four

people dead. It is at this point that the police eventually stepped in, but amazingly

proceeded to later arrest not those of the gang, but those who took to defence against

the attackers. Those arrested had links to AbM, but a few were not even part of the

defence action! There was no attempt to arrest any of the original attackers. The actions

of the armed gang, which continued into the week that followed, saw to the

displacement of thousands of people from their homes to makeshift shelters and

churches in or near the city, with their abandoned homes subsequently razed to the

ground by the attackers.

Many AbM organisers were forced to flee for their own safety and had to retreat into hiding where they have successfully managed to rebuild the organisation s capacity to fight and maintain struggles. The police action on the night, their initial absence and

subsequent lack of action were conspicuous as to their bias towards the attackers and

against the community members linked to AbM.

WHO ARE ABAHLALI?

The Abahlali BaseMjondolo (literally meaning shack dwellers) Movement was

formed in 2005 and launched by a road blockade organised from the Kennedy Road

settlement in protest at the sale, to a local industrialist, of a piece of nearby land long

promised by the local municipal councillor to shack dwellers for housing[4]. It is a

radical and politically independent movement that organises many thousands of the

militant poor in and around mainly the Durban area, although it has formal links with other similar poor people s groups like the Gauteng s Landless People s Movement, the Rural Network based in Kwazulu-Natal and the Western Cape s Anti-Eviction Campaign through the Poor People s Alliance[5].

It has recently also launched its Western Cape office[6] and continues to carry

out a variety of actions (road blockades, anti-election drives, taking the state to court,

etc.) to highlight the living conditions of the poor as well as to challenge programmes of

the ruling elite that are of no benefit to their constituency. As a result they have come up

against local business interests (especially Kennedy Road shebeen[7] owners), local

state actors, as well as the ruling ANC.

WHY?

Held against the backdrop of the xenophobic pogroms of 2008[8], it is easy at

first glance to view this as another attack of that terrible sort. However, it is the actions

of local authorities, local business and the police before and after the attacks that

provide the real motives.

By linking these horrific events to previous attempts to sideline and destabilise

the Abahlali organisation by exploiting ethnic and political tensions and rivalries

(exacerbated by the national elections of 2009), we at the ZACF have stated that what

is now unquestionable is the fact that the attacks were pre-planned; it appears highly

likely that the police had knowledge of the attacks beforehand. The way in which AbM members shacks were systematically targeted for destruction; the fact that when the police did finally appear on the scene they immediately arrested eight members of the

KRDC yet did not arrest any of the perpetrators of the attacks; and that the only people

the police took statements from were the attackers - not their victims - lead us to

conclude that police and political complicity in these attacks is now beyond

question [9].

AbM has, since its inception in 2005, come under constant scrutiny and attack

from the local and provincial government, driven by the ANC elite who see the counter-

punching and independent actions of the organisation as a threat to their political and

social hegemony.

In the morning after the initial attack, ANC leaders, particularly ANC Branch

Executive head, Jackson Gumede, and the local councillor, Yakoob Baig, arrived at the

Kennedy Road settlement with a huge police presence. They continued what can be

characterised as a coup in a wresting control of the area and influence in the KRDC

from the AbM. They publicly attacked Abahlali for, as they claimed, 'stopping

development' (through the KRDC, of which members were part of, which essentially

amounted to challenges to local private business development) by opposing the 'slums

act'[10].

By blaming the AbM for the attacks, and by stating the actions of the ANC and

police were of a liberatory nature, the ANC leaders branded the AbM 'criminals' and

in their presence, and that of the mob, the homes of AbM leaders and the AbM office

were systematically trashed and destroyed. Gumede then proceeded to take control of the settlement and subsequently banned the AbM, making it clear that anyone not

publicly renouncing the organisation would be driven from the settlement (so severe

has repression been since that people have not been allowed to attend community

meetings without brandishing an ANC membership card).

During the following week, a provincial MEC[11], Willies Mchunu (a prominent

provincial South African Communist Party member) issued a statement celebrating the

'liberation of Kennedy Road'.

In interactions with those affected by the attacks and linked to the AbM, ANC

party leaders were also in cahoots with local shebeen owners who were disgruntled by

the then recent drinking curfew imposed on their businesses by the KRDC. This body

only acted on the wishes of a community constantly dealing with social problems linked

to the over-consumption of alcohol.

THE KENNEDY ARRESTED

In the weeks that followed the attack, twelve KRDC and AbM activists were

arrested and charged with murder. A few of those arrested (some of whom were not in

Kennedy Road at the time of the attack and subsequent defence) were tracked down as

far away as the neighbouring Eastern Cape province. These political prisoners have

been held without trial in the notoriously violent Westville Prison, and although seven

have been released, all twelve still await trial[12]! The state has managed to postpone

hearing after hearing at magistrate level (with cases being presented before two

magistrates so far) in an attempt to search for any evidence so as to implicate the

arrested comrades. None has been found, yet all were trapped inside cages for no other

reason than political motivation.

How damningly similar to the darkest days of apartheid oppression and its states

of emergency in the 1980s when the Kwazulu-Natal province suffered an unmatched

degree of warlordism and rightwing (black, state-aided) militia attacks in black

communities.

Despite various attempts by domestic activists, organisations and church

institutions throughout the country and international[13] activists, the Kennedy 12

continue to experience the worst of what Mandela and the ANC s South Africa has to

offer.

The freedom of organisation and expression, cornerstones of a constitution

celebrated by nationalists and liberals alike, obviously has no place in the daily reality of

those in our society who suffer most at the end of the baton of the authoritarian state

and capital.

THE ELECTRICITY WARS The Landless People s Movement LPM , an independent organisation of the rural poor and shack dwellers near cities, primarily based in Gauteng[14], has raised the

ire of the local state and ruling party apparati by consistently highlighting their land and

housing plight. They have been consistently effective in regionally mobilising the working class and poor on a No Land No Vote campaign. Another campaign of illegally connecting electricity to shacks to provide families with a meagre amount of power, puts them in direct conflict with local bonded house inhabitants (home owners who continue to claim that these connections are at

their expense, which is not the case as connections are made to the main supply box, not

to homes lines, and who persistently lobby provincial government to evict neighbouring shack dwellers who limit property and house prices . During the last week of May 2010, less than 3 weeks from the lavish World Cup

opening ceremony, in a situation reminiscent of the Kennedy Road coup, armed men

acting in accordance with home owner wishes, attacked prominent LPM organisers

homes in the impoverished shack dweller communities of Protea South, Etwatwa and

Harry Gwala. Some homes were set alight, while many organisers and their family

members were physically assaulted and shot at in an attempt to drive them from the

community.

In a harrowing account, a ZACF comrade, who is also a prominent LPM organiser

and Protea South shack dweller, relayed that in the middle of the night of May 23, his

family of 4 (including his partner and ZACF supporter, and two young children of 5 and

3 years) were woken from their sleep by an armed gang who were out to get our

comrade. While hiding in his home in real fear of his life, he was unable to prevent the

gang beating up his partner, in full view of their kids. The family were driven from their

home, and after months of searching have relocated to a nearby community (still

housed in a shack).

Despite similar events, the only police intervention saw 17 people arrested (all

belonging to, or associated with the LPM, and none from the original gangs that

launched the attacks), 5 from the Protea settlement and 12 from Etwatwa (whom have

subsequently been released) as well as the continued harassment of organisers in Harry

Gwala[15].

I LL HAVE THE USUAL, PLEASE

As with the attacks on the AbM, the LPM suffers at the hands of local elites due to

its prominence in highlighting the issues and daily sufferings of the working class and

poor outside, and in many regards, against the formal institutions of the state.

The reasons for the attacks have been presented here, but what also needs to be

mentioned is that the Regional Secretary of the LPM, based in Protea South, has recently

used organisation resources to initiate an electoral campaign with the 2011 local

government elections in mind. With the ability to mobilise large numbers, the Secretary

(who has a history of authoritarianism and misuse of organisation funds and resources) has caused concern amongst the community s political elite and raised the

prospect of a local power struggle.

I hasten to add though, that at this time, this is entirely conjecture and is subject

to further investigation and continued community communication.

WAKA WAKA, WHAT?! The official F)FA World Cup song, sung by Colombia s pop princess Shakira and

the local Freshly Ground, claims that the hosting of the games was Africa s time . Time

for what exactly was not made clear, and how Africa was actually to benefit was even

less identifiable, but it was sung with gusto by those who could afford the local satellite

service and attend the games (the vast minority locally, and the thousands who

travelled from Europe, the United States, and the South American moneyed).

The real reasons for hosting the games though, as far as we are concerned, were

better expressed in songs like the Chomsky Allstars The Beautiful Gain [16] and the

ZACF piece[17] (the title of this statement owes a debt of gratitude to the Allstars s song). Having spent exorbitantly on hosting the World Cup, close on R850 billion on Cup

infrastructure and stadia, the government has clearly insulted the working class and

poor, many of whom exist in dire poverty without access to necessary basic resources

and work.

The state constantly claims it has no money for desperately needed social

services – crumbling state health and education systems and resources that are on the

verge of collapse and that are the only points of service available to the working poor –

but when it comes to putting on a show for the viewers, it exhibits a spending pattern

that flies in the face of such claims.

Many in South African society have claimed social cohesion as a lasting benefit of

having hosted the tournament. This claim must be unmasked for its ridiculousness.

Having white and black faces waving flags in and around soccer stadiums and fan parks

tells little of the cost required to access those bastions of the FIFA empire. It does not

take into account, but exhibits unintentionally the class character of the tournament as a

neo-liberal, capitalist project designed not for the majority of Africans, but for the very

few who could afford the various shows on offer. The social cohesion perspective also creates an us versus them compartmentalised way of thinking. This has sparked new and terrible rounds of

xenophobic violence which have broken out in townships. These were preceded by a

massive exodus of poor African foreign nationals from poor and working class

townships throughout the country.

EDUCATE TO ORGANISE! AGITATE TO SOCIALISE!

The ruling political and economic elite s desire was, and is, to co-opt or shut up

independent social organisations and movements of the working class (the vicious

attacks on the AbM and LPM for example, trade unions through hierarchically-

structured bargaining councils, etc.). It has shown ruthlessly that it will use the organs

of the state, ethnic and political tensions and the explosive xenophobic atmosphere for

its own ends of continued suppression of independent community-level voices and

action, to maintain socio-politico-economic control of the country.

These voices of agitation, their movements and organisations, must not be

allowed to be quietened. In fact, both the LPM and AbM have put in motion reconstruction plans which maintain their collective spirits of defiance, and which serve as points of inspiration for a currently embattled independent social activist

movement and a truly left alternative.

Social agitation and its organisation must not be seen as inevitable outcomes of

socio-economic oppression, but as the continued hard-working initiatives of activists at

grassroots level. It is to this that we, as anarchists, have always aspired and committed

ourselves to. In a South African and African climate of political and social

authoritarianism, despite a perceived lull in organised and sustained anti-state action at

a social movement level, the conditions for the building of a libertarian alternative do

still exist. However, we need to be realistic about our capacities and focus on projects

that can be achieved and used as examples of success to further our goals.

The continued education initiatives at the shop and shack floor need to be

sustained, providing communities and activists with an alternative reading and

understanding of society. On these we can build truly democratic and horizontally-

structured organs of people s power that can take the fight to the state and the

economic elite, always keeping in mind the power of these forces of opposition, but

realistically understanding that united on a constructive platform, we as the working

class and poor have the strength of fist, stick, stone and collective common purpose to

beat back the batons of oppression and pretension. Insodoing, we reveal the wounds

within the systems of authoritarianism and capitalism, prising open caveats for further

collective action and societal change.

NOTES

[1] http://www.abahlali.org/node/6779

[2] http://www.abahlali.org/node/5770

[3] A Southern African ethnic group that use Xhosa as their mother language

[4] For more information on the AbM see: http://www.abahlali.org/node/16

[5] http://sekwanele.wordpress.com/about/

[6] http://abahlali.org/node/6659

[7] an illicit bar selling alcohol without a liquor license

[8] http://www.zabalaza.net/index02.htm

[9] See our statement on our website titled: Kennedy Road Murders Recall Terror of the ’s: ZACF

statement on the Armed Attack on Abahlali baseMjondolo in Kennedy Road Informal Settlement

[10] http://abahlali.org/search/node/Slums+Act

[11] A Member of the (Provincial) Executive Council, the provincial cabinet of sorts; also

see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Member_of_the_Executive_Council

[12] http://www.abahlali.org/node/7170

[13] http://abahlali.org/node/5894

[14] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Landless_Peoples_Movement

[15] For more information regarding the attacks and the subsequent experience of LPM comrades, see:

http://abahlali.org/taxonomy/term/2138

[16] http://www.blacklooks.org/2010/06/chomsky-allstars-the-beautiful-gain-wc2010-anthem/

[17] http://www.anarkismo.net/article/16812