24 activists killed in land battle
Abahlali members are targeted for their fights for the rights of residents in informal settlements
Astaggering 24 members or supporters of the Abahlali basemjondolo social movement have been killed over the past 13 years. Only two convictions have been secured by the authorities in connection with the killings of Abahlali members, the bulk of which have taken place in attacks or targeted assassinations in informal settlements in which the movement is present.
Abahlali basemjondolo, which was founded in 2005, mobilises residents of informal settlements to take control of the land they live on.
According to a community practice note issued by the Socio-economic Rights Institute (Seri), which provides Abahlali with legal support, the movement “has been targets of both state-sanctioned and political violence because of their objectives, style of organising and, in particular, what leaders refer to as their audacity to organise beyond the confines of formal politics”.
According to the note, over the years, Abahlali has used legislation and constitutional precepts to assert the socioeconomic, civil and political rights of informal settlement residents, so preventing thousands of evictions in Durban and other areas.
A number of interdicts have been successfully secured against the ethekwini metropolitan council’s land invasion unit in from demolishing shacks in Kennedy Road in north Durban and in the ekhanana and enkanini informal settlements in the Cato Manor area.
The organisation has also been successful in securing basic services from the municipalities for some of the areas in which it organises — and in preventing the removal of people to outlying areas by the council — through a combination of occupations, legal action, discussions with the authorities and protest action.
But its leaders, members and supporters have paid a heavy price for this, in the form of intimidation, arrests and murders, which, in recent years, have increasingly taken the form of targeted assassinations of Abahlali leaders.
Since March, four of its leaders and members — Ayanda Ngila, Siyabonga Manqele, Nokuthula Mabaso and Lindokuhle Mnguni — have been shot dead in targeted attacks in the Cato Manor area.
Mabaso, 40, and Mnguni, 28, were witnesses to the assassination of Ngila — who had twice been arrested on trumped-up charges and later released — in March, shortly after he returned home after being released from police custody.
Local ANC leader and pastor Samson Ngubane and his brother, Mhlanganelo Ngubane, were arrested in connection with the murder of Mabaso, who was shot four times at her home in May.
Mabaso, Mnguni and Ngila were leaders of ekhanana, whose residents are locked in a court battle with the municipality, which wants to move them to Craigieburn, on the southern border of the ethekwini metro, and develop the land on which the residents are living.
Mabaso, a leader of the Abahlali Women’s League, had been due to testify at the bail application of Samson Ngubane’s son, Khaya, who was arrested for allegedly murdering Ngila, and had deposed an affidavit opposing him being granted bail shortly before she was gunned down.
The Ngubanes were denied bail last month and remain in police custody.
Seri says in its note that Abahlali’s experience shows that “neither court judgments in their favour nor other protections in the Constitution can safeguard its members against harassment and assassinations, unlawful evictions, or excessive uses of force by the local and national police and other private security agencies”.
The repression of Abahlali shows that a “limited tolerance for ideas and movements that threaten dominant interests and the political status quo” exists in South Africa.
“While Abahlali’s 17-year history is a struggle for expanding political space, it also tells of the risks and costs of confronting deeply embedded political interests. Organising outside the formal political terrain has violent and sometimes deadly consequences. The democratic project is challenged when the holders of political power are threatened by the alternative,” Seri said.
According to the note, the first Abahlali members to be killed — Mthokozisi Ndlovu and Ndumiso Mnguni — were stabbed to death by a mob who attacked the Kennedy Road settlement on 26 September 2009.
At the time, the city had moved to demolish the settlement, but had been halted by court action brought by lawyers on behalf of Abahlali.
The ANC regional and provincial leadership had labelled Abahlali as a “third force” for organising in Kennedy Road, with then public safety MEC Willie Mchunu publicly stating that he would “liberate” the area.
After the attack, 12 Kennedy Road residents were arrested on murder charges, but were released after 10 months in custody when the case was thrown out of court.
In March 2013, Thembinkosi Qumbelo, the chairperson of the Cato Crest Residents Association, was shot dead by four men, while another Abahlali member from the area, Nkululeko Gwala, was gunned down at his home on 26 June of the same year.
Three months later, Nqobile Nzuza, 17, was killed at Cato Crest when she was shot in the back of the head by police during a protest in the area over the demolition of shacks by the municipality. In 2018, a Cato Manor police constable, Phumlani Ndlovu, was jailed for 10 years for murdering Nzuza.
But Ndlovu successfully appealed his conviction and sentence, which were set aside the following year.
According to Seri’s note, the only other successful prosecution was that of ANC councillors Velile Lutyeku and Mduduzi Ngcobo, who were jailed along with hitman Mlungisi Ndlovu for the murder of the Kwandengezi Abahlali chairperson, Thuli Ndlovu, in September 2014.
Ndlovu was shot seven times at her home after receiving death threats for exposing corruption in the area.
The three received life sentences for murder, while Mlungisi Ndlovu received an additional 12-year sentence for attempting to murder Thuli Ndlovu’s neighbour’s son, who was with her at the time of the attack and was shot but survived.
The Kwazulu-natal police spokesperson, Colonel Nqobile Gwala, said that she could not comment on the statistics provided by Seri.
She said there were currently three cases relating to the murder of Abahlali members before court, while several others were still under investigation.
“We are also appealing to the members of the community to play a vital role in the fight against crime at Cato Crest by reporting all those behind the killings to the police. They can use the MYSAPS App where they can remain anonymous,” Gwala said.