A-Infos (en) South Africa: ZACF Statement on the Armed Attack on Abahlali baseMjondolo in Kennedy Road Informal Settlement - Recall Terror of the 1980s

A series of armed attacks took place at about 11h30 on the night of Saturday 26 September 
at the Kennedy Road Informal Settlemen, and carried on with impunity for at least 23 
hours. Although police are claiming two people died, it has been confirmed by Abahlali 
baseMjondolo that at least four people have been killed: three during the attacks and 
another died later in hospital. It is reported that the houses of around 30 AbM members 
were burnt or destroyed by a mob, shouting things like "The AmaMpondo are taking over 
Kennedy. Kennedy is for the AmaZulu" while carrying out the attacks. Hundreds, if not 
thousands of Kennedy Road residents have fled the community, some seeking refuge at nearby 
churches. "The Zabalaza Anarchist Communist Front (ZACF) notes with disgust the attacks on 
the Abahlali baseMjondolo (AbM) affiliated Kennedy Road Development Committee (KRDC) by a 
heavily armed gang near the AbM office in Kennedy Road informal settlement in Durban, 
KwaZulu Natal. We hereby extend our sympathy and solidarity to all those who have fallen 
victim to these cowardly attacks, and call for both national and international 
mobilisation and solidarity in their defence."

Kennedy Road Murders Recall Terror of the 1980s
ZACF Statement on the Armed Attack on Abahlali baseMjondolo in Kennedy Road Informal 
Settlement
The Zabalaza Anarchist Communist Front (ZACF) notes with disgust the attacks on the 
Abahlali baseMjondolo (AbM) affiliated Kennedy Road Development Committee (KRDC) by a 
heavily armed gang near the AbM office in Kennedy Road informal settlement in Durban, 
KwaZulu Natal. We hereby extend our sympathy and solidarity to all those who have fallen 
victim to these cowardly attacks, and call for both national and international 
mobilisation and solidarity in their defence

The attacks took place at about 11h30 on the night of Saturday 26 September, and carried 
on with impunity for at least 23 hours. Although police are claiming two people died, it 
has been confirmed by AbM that at least four people have been killed: three during the 
attacks and another died later in hospital. It is reported that the houses of around 30 
AbM members were burnt or destroyed by the mob, which was shouting things like "The 
AmaMpondo are taking over Kennedy. Kennedy is for the AmaZulu" while carrying out the 
attacks. Hundreds, if not thousands of Kennedy Road residents have fled the community, 
some seeking refuge at nearby churches.

The political rivalry in KwaZulu Natal has exploited ethnic sentiment and tensions that 
emerged during the Jacob Zuma election campaign, and we believe that the African National 
Congress (ANC) in and around Kennedy Road, and probably elsewhere, is using ethnicity to 
mobilise local residents against popular social movements such as Abahlali baseMjondolo. 
It seems clear to us that the popularly elected committee in the Kennedy Road settlement, 
and the social work they have been doing is perceived by local political leaders from the 
ANC to be a threat to political and property interests, and they are thus bent on 
destroying AbM.

It is not clear to us exactly how far up in the ANC the orchestration or tolerance of 
these attacks goes, but 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. Senior ANC leaders were even present in the 
Kennedy Road Community Hall on Sunday morning, while the armed gang continued to burn and 
demolish the homes of the elected Kennedy Road leadership.

The ANC and the state have their own story to tell about the attack. They imply that it 
was perpetrated by AbM members themselves, and that the police are now moving in to 
“liberate” Kennedy Road. But after the announcement was made by the provincial police 
minister and police commissioner on Monday 28 September, the cops departed, leaving the 
area to be patrolled by bands of armed men who banned AbM from the area on pain of death.

And what was this “liberation” that the state claimed to bring to Kennedy Road? An end to 
democratically determined curfews! The big complaint made by high state officials is that 
“a structure simple known as The Forum” imposed an “illegal curfew”. Indeed, the KRDC 
required shebeens to close by 10pm. Would these officials want shebeens operating all 
night in their own neighbourhoods, right next to their own homes? And we should note that 
alcohol abuse is a serious problem in many shack settlements, leading to such deadly 
results as shack fires and violence against women. In any case, the KRDC is a democratic 
body: if residents wanted the curfew abolished, they could have done so democratically.

If the state is worried about the curfew at all, we suspect that this democracy is 
precisely what they object to. The state claims for itself the authority to regulate 
alcohol consumption and everything else. They cannot allow working class communities to 
run their own lives on their own initiative, lest people start wondering why they need the 
state at all. This working class self-activity is one of the things they hate about Abahlali.

But we believe the curfew question is merely an excuse. To quote activist Richard 
Pithouse, “given that AbM has been subject to constant intelligence and police attention 
for 4 years its laughable that the only 'crime' that the state has now found AbM guilty of 
is that a sub-comittee of an elected local sub-committe in one settlement decided to set 
closing times on bars”. The ethnically based murderous attack has nothing to do with 
curfews, and a lot to do with state strategies to divide the working class and suppress 
our movements.

The coordinated manner in which these attacks were carried out, and the complicity of the 
police, are reminiscent of the dark years of the 1980s, when the apartheid regime 
manipulated ethnic divisions within the popular classes in order to ferment so-called 
black-on-black violence and turn the anti-apartheid movement on itself, thus destabilising 
it. The tactics used are very similar, and the murders in Kennedy Road recall the 
apartheid state-sponsored terror of the 1980s. Similarly, the failure of the state to 
intervene in these attacks and prevent further bloodshed, protect the belongings of 
Kennedy Road residents or apprehend the perpetrators of the attacks recalls the way in 
which the state failed to intervene during the xenophobic pogroms of 2008, despite being 
warned by intelligence about the high probability of such attacks months before they took 
place.

What was warned against, in fact, by Abahlali baseMjondolo in their statement [1] after 
the xenophobic pogroms in 2008 has come true, and they have been the unfortunate victims 
of their own prediction: the xenophobic violence of the pogroms has turned into 
intra-South African violence, as ethnic sentiments have been manipulated by the class 
enemy to attack and attempt to smash working class movements. The state, by its complicity 
in these attacks, together with local ANC leaders are exploiting the ethnic politics 
fostered by the Jacob Zuma election campaign to do their dirty work. There is an upsurge 
in chauvinistic violence in South Africa, much of which is directed towards the poor and 
working poor and, as the attacks in Kennedy Road have shown, the enemies of the working 
class are manipulating the chauvinistic attitudes embraced and fostered by Jacob Zuma and 
directing them against the popular movements of the poor.

The history of class struggle shows that these attacks on popular movements are no 
surprise. The state is an organ of the ruling class, and will violently defend its power 
when challenged. Working class movements cannot rely on the state to defend them against 
such attacks as the one in Kennedy Road: the state is the attacker!

Many popular movements have understood this. During the 1980s the working class and poor 
in South Africa found ways to deal with the violence being orchestrated against their 
movements and communities. They formed street committees, block watches and self-defence 
units to keep their enemies at bay and to defend themselves from attack.

Although popular self-defence of the Kennedy Road residents would be preferable, we 
understand that this is not viable when their attackers are supported by the police, while 
the KRDC is unarmed and lacks training in self-defence. We therefore understand why they 
would call for immediate state intervention to prevent any further attacks, but would like 
to raise a word of caution for our comrades in Kennedy Road settlement to consider. By 
calling for police or military intervention the KRDC is talking about inviting the forces 
of repression into the heartland of a working class social movement that is hated by the 
class enemy. Even if they offer some short-term defence against the vigilantes and the 
local police, this would also place our comrades from the KRDC under far closer 
surveillance. In the slightly longer term, any military or police presence would be a 
severe obstacle to further resistance. This is a problem, not just in theory and in the 
medium to long term, but in practice and pretty immediately. And if, indeed, these attacks 
were planned or supported at high levels, any further repressive presence is a recipe for 
disaster. As it is not yet known how far up in government and the ANC the support or 
involvement in these attacks goes, there can be no guarantee than any outside police force 
or the military will be neutral. They are, after all, sworn to follow orders and protect 
the interests of the state, and if high levels of the ANC and/ or government support the 
attacks in Kennedy Road, we can never be sure that so-called neutral forces will not 
behave in the same was as the Sydenham Police.

We cannot say what would be better for members of the KRDC and their families, but raise 
this concern nonetheless so that they may consider the possible implications of their 
decision to call in the police or military beforehand. In the end, however, the decision 
is up to them. We hope they will find a decision that can both protect their families and 
members from any immediate threat without putting the movement under undue pressure in the 
future.

We do think, though, that there are a few tactics that AbM could adopt in the present. 
Looking to the experience of working class communities in other countries, we could 
propose that they adopt some of the tactics of the CopWatch [2] initiatives in the United 
States as a means to beginning to develop the capacity for self-defence. One such method 
could be for community activists to begin a programme of counter-intelligence by 
collecting evidence, carrying out surveillance and building profiles on people who harass 
or threaten KRDC and AbM members, or associate with people who have made themselves known 
to be enemies of the KRDC, AbM and thus the working class and poor.

Members of Abahlali could also monitor the actions of the police and military, if they are 
indeed deployed, who they associate with and how they treat AbM members and behave towards 
them. Police who mistreat AbM members or are known to associate with enemies of the KRDC 
and AbM could be put under pressure to leave the community by means of popular protest and 
mobilisation. If the police are called in to secure the peace in Kennedy Road, however, we 
support the demand of the KRDC that the Sydenham Police not be tasked with this, given 
their long history of anti-AbM activity, which includes illegal arrest and torture.

We support the community's demands for:

1. Right to return to the settlement
2. Right to free political activity in the settlement
3. No more politically biased policing
4. Full investigation into the role of the anc in the attacks and the banning of abm from 
the settlements

We call on all social movements, activists and revolutionaries to mobilise in support and 
defence of the Kennedy Road Development Committee and Abahlali baseMjondolo. We call on 
our comrades worldwide to organise solidarity demonstrations; release statements of 
solidarity with Abahlali baseMjondolo and the terrorised residents of Kennedy Road; phone, 
send emails and faxes to the South African embassies in your country and to the head of 
the South African Police Service and demand the immediate release of the eight KRDC 
members arrested. We also appeal to our comrades everywhere to help to raise funds to help 
the members of the KRDC who had their homes destroyed and possessions stolen begin to 
rebuild their lives.
Zabalaza Anarchist Communist Front


Notes:

1. Unyawo Alunampumulo: Abahlali baseMjondolo Statement on the Xenophobic Attacks in 
Johannesburg
2. See, for example, http://www.copwatchla.org/

Related Link: http://www.zabalaza.net
_________________________________________
A - I N F O S  N E W S  S E R V I C E
By, For, and About Anarchists
Send news reports to A-infos-en mailing list
A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://ainfos.ca/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/a-infos-en
Archive: http://ainfos.ca/en