Shack dwellers tell of hits and death threats

SHACK dwellers’ movement Abahlali baseMjondolo painted a grim picture of politically connected killings and violence directed at the indigent at the Moerane Commission of Inquiry.

The movement’s founder and elected president, S’bu Zikode, told commissioners that he had “absolutely no doubt” that killings of members or acts of violence directed at the organisation and those close to it were politically motivated.

Zikode, responding to questions by the commission’s evidence leader, advocate Bheki Manyathi, listed members of Abahlali or its supporters who had allegedly been killed by police since 2013.

His testimony included the well-publicised 2014 assassination of Abahlali’s KwaNdengezi chairperson, Thuli Ndlovu.

Ndlovu was killed by a hitman hired by eThekwini ANC councillors Mduduzi Ngcobo and Velile Lutsheku after she made it known that the men were allocating housing to ANC members who were not from the area.

The councillors and hitman were found guilty of her murder and sentenced to life in prison. The Cape Times’s sister paper, The Mercury, revealed that Ngcobo and Velile were still on the city’s payroll while they were seeking to appeal.

eThekwini declined to answer ANA when asked if, a year later, Ngcobo and Lutsheku were still receiving salaries.

Zikode said he had been on the receiving end of death threats, that the organisation’s office was torched when it was still located at the Kennedy Road informal settlement in 2009 and that efforts were made to paint shack dwellers as violent criminals plotting against the ANC and the government.

Other Abahlali members or affiliates that the movement believed had been killed for political reasons included Thembinkosi Qumbela, Nkululeko Gwala and 15-year-old Ngobile Nzuza.

All were killed at Cato Crest on separate occasions in 2013.

Speaking about Nkululeko’s death, Zondi said: “We believe he was shot because of the corruption he was exposing. Nkululeko was an intelligent leader, sociable, commanded respect from the community and built hope and confidence.

“He has a good following among the popular masses, which threatened those in political leadership who were unable to interact with community the way he did.”

Zondi told the commission that Nkosinathi Mngomezulu was shot eight times in the stomach by police during the 2013 protests. Mngomezulu survived and was in attendance yesterday.