Serious Threats Made Against our Movement by the Leaders in the eThekwini ANC

1. Serious Threats Made Against our Movement by the
Leaders in the eThekwini ANC
At the Executive Committee meeting of the eThekwini
Municipality on Tuesday, 12 June, the Mayor and the Chief
Whip made disturbingly undemocratic, authoritarian and
threatening statements about our movement, and about S’bu
Zikode. In light of our past experiences, and the current climate
of intimidation and violence in KwaZulu-Natal, which includes
the ongoing murder of our leaders, we take these threats very
seriously. We are sending out an urgent call for solidarity, and
for urgent action to be taken against the senior leaders in
eThekwini ANC who are a serious threat to democracy, and our
safety.
The Mayor, Zandile Gumede, said that there was a ‘third hand’
behind our movement. She also said that the City would not
work with our movement and would, instead, work with the
South African Shack Dwellers’ International Alliance – the
South African branch of the international NGO that used to be
known as Shack Dwellers International (SDI). The Chief Whip,
Nelly Nyanisa, said that S’bu Zikode is “hellbent on making the
city ungovernable”. She also issued a clear threat against our
movement saying “We will deal with them.” This has all been
reported in the Daily News.
Since our movement was formed in 2005, without a cent of
donor funding or any NGO involvement, the ANC in Durban,
and sometimes elsewhere too, including the Province, have
claimed that we are a front for the ‘Third Force’. Our movement

2. has always been a democratic project with elected leaders
subject to the right to recall. We hold open public assemblies
and regular elections and make most important decisions on
the basis of consensus achieved after numerous meetings.
Our struggle for land and housing in the city is the same
struggle that was waged by the United Democratic Front (UDF),
the women of Cato Manor, including ANC leaders like Dorothy
Nyembe and Florence Mkhize, and the Industrial and
Commercial Workers’ Union (ICU). We remember that when
the ANC was first unbanned in 1990 it had a poster saying
‘Occupy the Cities!’
No evidence has ever been provided to support the claim that
we are a front for the ‘Third Force’. However, this claim has
constantly been used by the ANC to legitimate repression
against us, including arrest, assault, torture, the destruction of
our homes and murder. In 2005 S’bu Zikode wrote an article
explaining that the real ‘third force’ behind our decision to
organise ourselves independently from the ANC, and to
struggle for land, housing and dignity, was the oppression that
we faced in our everyday lives.
There have been many occasions since 2005 during which the
ANC at various levels has said that we are an illegitimate
organisation and that they will, instead, work with SDI. In 2007
the Provincial Housing Department, at that time under Mike
Mabuyakulu, told us to join SDI or face arrest. A specific threat
was made against S’bu Zikode. We refused to accept this

3. intimidation. Shortly after this threat to our leaders S’bu Zikode
and Philani Zungu were arrested and subject to severe assault
in the Sydenham Police Station. We successfully sued the
police for damages as a result of this arrest and assault. It is
completely undemocratic and authoritarian for the ANC to
decide which organisation it wants to represent shack dwellers.
Shack dwellers have the same rights to freedom of association
as everyone else. We can form and support any organisation
that we choose.
The claim that S’bu Zikode is “hellbent on making the city
ungovernable” is nothing but the rage and paranoia of a corrupt
and authoritarian elite confronted by a mass movement from
below that has refused to accept oppression. S’bu Zikode, like
all our leaders, follows the mandates worked out in open and
democratic meetings and assemblies. In April this year our
audited membership passed 50 000 members in good
standing. There are still 13 branches to be audited, and we
continue to open new branches and to welcome new members.
The direction for our movement comes from our members. Our
leaders are led from below. It often takes months of
discussions, in numerous meetings, to arrive at a shared
position on an issue. For this reason we say “We are all S’bu
Zikode!”.
The ANC in Durban has a long history of illegal and often
violent conduct towards impoverished people. Laws and court
orders are routinely violated. We do not stand for making the
city ungovernable. We stand for land, housing and dignity. For

4. us dignity does not only require land and housing. It also
requires that each person - no matter where they live, how
much money they have, or where they were born - must be
engaged with respect. They must be able to participate in all
decision making relevant to themselves and their community.
We therefore stand for participatory democracy.
We take Nyanisa’s threat to ‘deal with them’ very seriously. In
the past we have been attacked after similar threats have been
made against us by senior ANC leaders in the City. This
includes the attack on our movement by armed ANC members,
supported by the police, in Kennedy Road in 2009. It is well
known that the then chairperson of the ANC in eThekwini, the
notorious John Mchunu, ordered and planned that attack. This
has been confirmed to us numerous times over the years by
various people in the ANC, and even the police. Shortly before
the attack Mchunu made clear threats against us in an ANC
meeting, threats that were reported in the media. Based on
similar sources it is our understanding that Nyanisa worked
closely with Mchunu during that time. We therefore take this
threat from her very seriously. What was said on Tuesday
sounds almost exactly the same as the things that were said
before we were attacked in the past, especially in the lead up to
the attack in 2009.
Nyanisa is well known for sleeping in Executive Committee
meetings. But we were told that that she was wide awake and
with high energy when she made her threats against us.

5. It is clear that we are already being ‘dealt with’. On 19
November 2017 Sibonelo Mpeku, our chairperson in the
Sisonke Village land occupation in Lamontville, was kidnapped
and murdered. On 17 December 2017 Soyiso Nkqayini, our
Youth League organiser in the eNkanini land occupation in
Cato Manor, was assassinated. On 22 May 2018 S’fiso
Ngcobo, our chairperson in the eKukhanyeni occupation in
Marianhill was assassinated. There have been no arrests for
the murders of Mpeku, Nkqayini and Ngcobo.
On Tuesday the final report of the Moerane Commission was
handed over to the Premier of KwaZulu-Natal, Willies Mchunu.
We have grave doubts about this process because in 2009
when Willies Mchunu was an MEC he strongly and openly
supported the attack on our movement, and the attempts by the
ANC to lie about that attack. He refused the demands for a
Commission of Inquiry into the attack. However, we have high
respect for Judge Moerane and we have high hopes that the
report will deal with political violence in KwaZulu-Natal honestly
and bravely.
When we were attacked in 2009 we were on our own. Today
there is a lot of awareness across the country, and including
within the ANC, of just how serious the problem of political
violence is in KwaZulu-Natal. We are calling on everyone who
is committed to a peaceful and democratic future in the
Province to take a clear position against the conduct of the
Gumede and Nyanisa, to affirm our right to organise freely, and
to oppose all forms of political violence and intimidation.

6.
We are also calling on the South African Shack Dwellers’
International Alliance to take a clear and public position against
the violence and lies of the ANC in eThekwini, and the attempts
to divide impoverished people into an ‘enemy’ that can be
excluded and repressed and ‘the good poor’ that will be
recognised be the Municipality.
Noting the statements by the President of the country, and the
national Minister for policing, expressing concern about political
violence in KwaZulu-Natal we have written to them both asking
them to ensure that there is serious investigation into the
murders of our members. They have both responded positively.
We appreciate this and hope that these responses are
accompanied by serious action. We also note that while the
eThekwini Municipality is refusing to recognise us we have
been invited by the national government to contribute to the
deliberations about land in Parliament.
We will continue to organise and to struggle for land and
housing. We will continue to expose corruption. If anything
happens to any of our leaders we will hold the Mayor and the
Chief Whip personally liable as a result of the reckless
comments that they made in the meeting of the Executive.
Because these comments have been publicly reported no one
in the ANC in the Province or nationally can deny knowledge of
them. There is a moral obligation on ANC members elsewhere
to condemn these comments.

7. We also wish to place on record that a number of our leaders in
Durban have received repeated telephonic threats in recent
weeks. Anyone who agrees to put their name on a press
statement immediately receives death threats by telephone. In
a number of wards across the city our leaders in the branches
are receiving regular death threats from ANC councillors and
local party structures. We strongly suspect that this is
happening because Gumede has given an instruction to attack
Abahlali baseMjondolo.
We also wish to place on record that our leader in the Eastern
Cape has received several death threats from an ANC
councillor.
The two ANC councillors that were convicted for the murder of
Thuli Ndlovu, our chairperson in KwaNdengezi, in September
2014 were closely associated with Gumede. The Mayor is not
separate from the gangsterism that has corrupted the ANC in
Durban and turned it into an oppressive force preying on the
people.