Inkosi Thulani Mjanyelwa finally laid to rest

1. Inkosi Thulani Mjanyelwa finally laid to rest
Inkosi Thulani Mjanyelwa, the chief in Mpondoland who was
brutally killed by a mob of people on 26 August, was finally laid
to rest in Bizana on the 15 September. It was a long struggle to
be able to bury him at his own homestead.
There is bitter division in the area between those, many linked
to the ANC, who support the international mining companies,
and those who want the land to be held and managed by the
people. Inkosi Mjanyelwa was clearly against those who want
to give the land to the mining companies. He was committed to
opposing the occupation of Mpondoland by an alliance between
the ANC and the mining companies.
On 4 August this year King Mjanyelwa, and other traditional
leaders in the Qhawukeni Traditional Authority, welcomed our
movement to Mpondoland. Thousands of our members in
Durban are from Mpondoland, and for years there has been a
vibrant and ongoing exchange of ideas and practices of
struggle between Durban and Mpondoland. We have a growing
membership in the towns and villages in Mpondoland.
At the meeting on 4 August King Mjanyelwa, and other
traditional leaders, recognised Abahlali baseMjondolo as a
powerful movement fighting for land, and insisting that land
should be occupied and managed by the people, and should
not be bought or sold. They gave their public blessing for our
movement to organise in Mpondoland.
Inkosi Mjanyelwa attended our Unfreedom Day event the 23
April this year. Inkosi Mjanyelwa was a reliable chief who
understands that a chief is a chief because of the people, and
not because of the state. He believed that it was his duty to
ensure that the land in Mpondoland was defended against the
alliance between the ruling party and the mining companies. He
was against other chiefs who sold the land in Mpondoland and

2. repressed people who resisted. He believed that land must be
used for living and survival. He believed in the truth even if it
meant losing his life which he eventually did.
His life was taken by the people who are against the struggle to
keep the land in the hands of the people. The ANC are claiming
that he was murdered by the community because he was a
dictator and is suspected of killing two people. There is a long
history of the ANC using rumours to justify repression. Our
comrades and members in the area are all clear that these
rumours are not true. They say that Inkosi Mjanyelwa was killed
for Mpondoland. He was killed so that those who wanted use
the land for private profit and not for the benefit of the
community could become wealthy at the expense of the people.
He was killed because he was a stumbling block between those
who wanted to take the land from the community. He stood his
ground and never gave in to those who wanted to take away
the land in Mpondoland. They say that Inkosi Mjanyelwa was
not just a chief, he was an activist.
His funeral was dominated by the ANC. This came as a
surprise because the people who were marching against the
arrest of six people arrested for the killing of Inkosi were
wearing ANC shirts. Also, it has been the ANC because the
ANC who have been pushing the rumours about Inkosi.
We know that when an activist is attacked or killed for fighting
against the state, propaganda is used shamelessly. When our
movement was attacked by the ANC in Kennedy Road in 2009
incredible lies were told. Those lies were later exposed as
fabrication in court. In time the truth became clear. When
Bhazooka Radebe of the Amadiba Crisis Committee was killed
for being vocal against the mining of the Mpondoland
propaganda was used.
A number of our comrades from the Eastern Cape are currently
in hiding because they supported Inkosi, and the struggle to

3. keep the land in the hands of the people, and today they are
facing threats. Our movement will continue organise in the
Eastern Cape and to work with all other progressive forces to
protect Mpondoland from those who want to use it for profit.
The hypocrites in the ANC who were against Inkosi are now
pretending to have shared his sentiments. Abahlali came out in
numbers when Inkosi was laid to rest. In the end the ANC had
to give Mqapheli Bonono a platform to speak for our movement
and he gave a powerful speech with no compromises on our
politic, which is a politic that says that land should be owned
and managed, democratically, by the people and should not be
bought and sold.
We remain committed to building the struggle for land, and
against the alliance between the elites in the ANC and the
mining companies, in Mpondoland.