NUMEROUS types of chickens are coming home to roost in South Africa.
During their long campaign to win power by making the country
ungovernable via a no-holds-barred "people’s war", the ruling alliance
made up of the African National Congress (ANC), the South African
Communist Party and the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu),
injected into the bloodstream of the body politic a virus of violence
that they cannot now eradicate.
Whether to enforce strikes or bus
or school boycotts, protest against "service delivery" failures, back
some or other demand on campus, or complain against trains that are
late, violence in South Africa has become routine, not unusual.
Nonstrikers are murdered (60 of them in the security guards strike in
2006), city centres or university buildings trashed, roads blockaded or
railway coaches set alight. People from other parts of Africa who
undercut local traders are threatened or even murdered in so-called
xenophobic violence.
It is a tragic and bitter irony that all this
is happening in a country that is second to none in constitutionally
guaranteed and judicially protected democratic rights. The bitterest
irony of all is how the virus of violence has corrupted parts of the
trade union movement. During apartheid, when union officials were banned
or detained without trial, and black unions frequently barred from
factories by hostile employers, the emerging black union movement won
its legal rights by a struggle that was essentially nonviolent.
Now,
with a privileged position, plus organisational and strike rights that
are also second to none around the world, unions have become
increasingly intolerant, as the Democratic Alliance experienced during
its recent march on Cosatu House.
Killing people in the context of
inter-union rivalry at Lonmin is also a manifestation of a principle
that the ruling alliance introduced during its people’s war, which was
to eliminate rival political organisations as far as possible. One of
the chickens that is now coming home to roost is that some of the rival
factions within the ANC are now using violence — possibly even
assassinations — against one another.
Another of the chickens is
the poor quality of the police. Their behaviour at Lonmin is but the
most lethal manifestation of a wider lack of professional skill,
including frequent inability to master the basics of crime scene
investigation.
Any intelligent leadership in the police force
would have long ago foreseen the risks arising from our violent
political culture. Proper training and equipment would long since have
been provided to avoid precisely what happened at Lonmin. But, of
course, the ANC has ensured that there is no proper leadership at the
top of the police force. Instead, the police have become the plaything
of rival factions in the ruling party, not to mention the victims of
affirmative action and cadre deployment policies.
So South Africa
is in a catch-22. The people’s war was part of the strategy of the
national democratic revolution to make the country ungovernable.
Continued adherence to the strategy of the national democratic
revolution in the form of cadre deployment in particular results in a
police force that cannot handle the violence that continues as a
hangover from the people’s war.
One consequence of the ineptitude
of the police is their inability to handle situations such as that at
Lonmin without making things infinitely worse. Another is their
inability to put a stop to the violence that now characterises so many
demonstrations across the country. A third is their inability to secure
prosecutions and convictions of violent demonstrators.
Over all of
this presides a president out of his depth as CE of the state. His
ministers take unto themselves more and more power. Yet, apart from
collecting taxes, his government fails increasingly to get the very
basics right, top of which is providing law and order under the rule of
law. His fondness for singing about his machine gun while the whole
nation listens symbolises the very culture of violence that is helping
to ruin this country.
• Kane-Berman is CE of the South African Institute of Race Relations.
Source: Business Day
Showing posts with label Xenophobia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Xenophobia. Show all posts
Monday, August 20, 2012
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Zimbabwe man stoned to death in brutal xenophobic attack
A Zimbabwean man, a father of five, has been stoned to death for being a Zimbabwean, in a brutal xenophobic attack believed to be organised by local ANC local leaders.
Those who knew him say Sergent Kanyimo was a quiet man whose only passion was his wife and five children back home in Zimbabwe.
The xenophobic attack happened in the early hours of Good Friday in Wallacedene, Kraaifontein, as Sergent left for work in Simon's Town. Homeowner Maduna Mwahla, 56, says she was shocked to see the bloodied man in her yard. "It just doesn't make sense. Why would one kill a man simply because he comes from another country?" she asks. She says she heard a stone hitting her house then peeped through the window and saw Sergent sprawled on her doorstep. "They hit him with a hammer until he fell down - he stood up but they hit him repeatedly until he could stand no more," she says.
But witnessing the murder is the least of Maduna's worries - she is scared Sergent's spirit will haunt her home and begged his family to conduct a ritual to cleanse it. "Before they leave, they must say to him: 'Now we are collecting your body and we are taking it back to Zimbabwe'," Maduna says. "I'm worried that his soul will roam around and cause bad luck."
A 22-year-old witness to the attack says Sergent's death is xenophobic and a local ANC leader has been fingered in the attack. "They [the attackers] said they wanted to rid our area of foreigners - and it hurts because I know him personally," she says. Sergent's brother-in-law Adam Chairi, 22, says the older man hated alcohol and kept to himself. "All he cared about were his five kids and wife he left in Zimbabwe," says Adam.
Source: The Zimbabwe Mail
Those who knew him say Sergent Kanyimo was a quiet man whose only passion was his wife and five children back home in Zimbabwe.
The xenophobic attack happened in the early hours of Good Friday in Wallacedene, Kraaifontein, as Sergent left for work in Simon's Town. Homeowner Maduna Mwahla, 56, says she was shocked to see the bloodied man in her yard. "It just doesn't make sense. Why would one kill a man simply because he comes from another country?" she asks. She says she heard a stone hitting her house then peeped through the window and saw Sergent sprawled on her doorstep. "They hit him with a hammer until he fell down - he stood up but they hit him repeatedly until he could stand no more," she says.
But witnessing the murder is the least of Maduna's worries - she is scared Sergent's spirit will haunt her home and begged his family to conduct a ritual to cleanse it. "Before they leave, they must say to him: 'Now we are collecting your body and we are taking it back to Zimbabwe'," Maduna says. "I'm worried that his soul will roam around and cause bad luck."
A 22-year-old witness to the attack says Sergent's death is xenophobic and a local ANC leader has been fingered in the attack. "They [the attackers] said they wanted to rid our area of foreigners - and it hurts because I know him personally," she says. Sergent's brother-in-law Adam Chairi, 22, says the older man hated alcohol and kept to himself. "All he cared about were his five kids and wife he left in Zimbabwe," says Adam.
Source: The Zimbabwe Mail
Saturday, November 1, 2008
URGENT anti-Xenophobia action in Durban
Refugees still living in Durban’s Albert Park were confronted by SAPS this morning who came to remove their shelters (a small number of displaced foreign nationals have refused re-integration into communities and repatriation efforts, even from the UNHCR, have been rejected). Read here below an email sent by Oliver Meth to History Matters:
Early Saturday afternoon, November 01, 2008
Just taking a break from the scene of the confrontation, at Albert Park in central Durban, and have more information which can be verified by numerous witnesses:
* around 50 refugees, mainly women and children, were approached at 8am by Durban police, without warning, and their plastic shelters destroyed and most of their possessions confiscated
* the constable in charge of the operation has gone on record saying that the original orders were to evict the refugees at 9pm last night, but for ‘humanitarian’ reasons they delayed until this morning;
* the constable named city manager Mike Sutcliffe as the man responsible (“the great white shark”) and said that his orders were to clear the area both because “2010 is around the corner” and because on Tuesday, there is a major ANC imbizo planned for the park, with high-ranking politicians expected
* Sutcliffe spent a few minutes on the telephone with Sayed-Iqbal Mohamed of the Organization of Civil Rights, telling Mohamed that he could do nothing, and that this was now a police matter
* the police have no information about victims’ human rights during displacement and evictions (i.e. that alternative accommodation must be provided), and they simply expect the refugees to disappear with their remaining belongings
* after a two hour wait, a city ambulance has just taken away one women refugee who collapsed during the scuffling this morning; there was some manhandling of especially children who tried to prevent goods from being confiscated
* the churches we’ve spoken to so far have no money so are turning down the refugees’ request for immediate shelter
* Durban police captain Ragavan said that confiscated goods have been taken to the police department impoundment area
* the media have flocked to the scene, but in addition to support for immediate shelter, lawyers are still needed
A few months ago, here’s Mike Sutcliffe on how wonderfully Durban is managing xenophobia:
https://www.durban.gov.za/durban/government/munadmin/media/cmn/cmnitem.2008-07-25.8057331980/view
Anyone older than 30 years of age would contest very strongly that the recent thuggery and criminality rocking our country was simply about xenophobia. While I have no doubt we all harbour traces of racism, sexism and xenophobia, the attacks required a catalyst. In this case it was groups of men with a clear mission in mind. What happened in our city where foreigners were driven out of their homes was a “spin-off” from the unrest in Gauteng and was not directly fuelled by “locally-based anger or hatred.” The “hotspots” in our city included Albert Park, the Dalton Road hostel, Cato Crest and the area known as Road 1102 in Chatsworth.
The reality is that many foreigners and South Africans were displaced and we were tested and in many cases found wanting. From my side it is clear that national, provincial and local government must work out clearly a modus operandi on who takes the lead in such matter. Whilst primarily a national and provincial responsibility, the reality is that we are the first agencies to get called out. We worked closely with local non-governmental organizations, the Red Cross, faith based organizations, SAPS and provincial government departments, but we must clarify roles and responsibilities and there must be resources backing up those responsibilities.
When the first incident occurred, and for all others, we dispatched officials to put in place a system to provide health, sanitation, waste management, environmental health, feeding, blankets and surveillance by metro police. The health department of the city has being providing health and immunization services at all police stations, community halls, churches and mosques where refugees are being held. Additional nurses and mobile toilets and showers have been hired by the municipality at all these sites to complement the facilities provided by the local churches and mosques.
In the current tough economic climate, he said, with food prices going through the roof, it is understandable that scarcity of basic resources will bring about heightened tension amongst people, especially those who are struggling to survive.
At the height of the tension a few weeks ago, there were about 2000 that needed emergency shelter. Whilst it has been reduced to around 800, what is good is that many of those chased out of their homes are coming back and that is a hopeful sign.
We must always keep the balance between looking after the needs of those who had been displaced and find suitable refuge for them with basic sanitation, and those who face poverty and massive social challenges on a daily basis. While NGOs and the public have assisted the city in alleviating their plight, we also have to take care that we do not perpetuate the situation longer than necessary. A growing refugee problem is something we must try and avoid at all costs.
Our relationship with the local refugee community leadership is good and we must collectively work on ideas to tackle xenophobia and integration of refugees into the local community. Annually the city has hosted the world refugee day celebrations and worked with the local refugee community to explore ways of integrating refugees.
May I express our sincere gratitude to all faith based organizations, NGO’s and individual citizens who have contributed to the plight of refugees. We have realized that there is much room for improvement. At the same time we must work together to remove all criminals from our communities whether they are South African or foreign.
The situation has now stabilised and we must collectively work with all stakeholders towards a climate that promotes a society free from racism, xenophobia and poverty.
Who are the refugees remaining in Albert Park in a particularly downtrodden section of central Durban? Because they have refused offers of support from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (which they say are inadequate to their needs), the group’s plight has not been covered favourably. Below, find some audio testimonials (uploaded by Radio Continental Drift) from the DRC refugees, recorded just over three weeks ago.
Coming soon, a transcript showing explicit police intimidation and violation of the refugees’ human rights, in the course of the eviction this morning.
DURBAN SINGS
audio reports from KwaZulu-Natal
9 October 2008
part I:
http://www.archive.org/DurbanSings
A gathering of makeshift shelters in a public park in the city of Durban, South Africa. A group of Congolese have been living here under plastic cover since June. Pots over open wood fires, washing on lines between the trees, many children are running around the huts. What happened? What made the group settle here under precarious conditions?
What happens to the children when it’s raining…? Gideon, a local passer-bye talks to Delphine, one of the group who is now living at Albert Park (track 03-08). Delphine responds with questions and songs and tells their story. Rebecca Hinely and Oliver Meth, from the Centre for Civil Society are regular visitors. They join the conversation (track 02) while preparations for a chicken-curry are going on in the background.
More songs follow.
These audio reports are published to feed debate and listening exchange for the questions raised here. Comments and responses (written or audio) or links and reports of related experiences and discussions are most welcome and can be posted to the contacts below. For audio comments, please up-load your recordings on archive.org (keyword: Durban Sings) and send us the link.
Source:
Early Saturday afternoon, November 01, 2008
Just taking a break from the scene of the confrontation, at Albert Park in central Durban, and have more information which can be verified by numerous witnesses:
* around 50 refugees, mainly women and children, were approached at 8am by Durban police, without warning, and their plastic shelters destroyed and most of their possessions confiscated
* the constable in charge of the operation has gone on record saying that the original orders were to evict the refugees at 9pm last night, but for ‘humanitarian’ reasons they delayed until this morning;
* the constable named city manager Mike Sutcliffe as the man responsible (“the great white shark”) and said that his orders were to clear the area both because “2010 is around the corner” and because on Tuesday, there is a major ANC imbizo planned for the park, with high-ranking politicians expected
* Sutcliffe spent a few minutes on the telephone with Sayed-Iqbal Mohamed of the Organization of Civil Rights, telling Mohamed that he could do nothing, and that this was now a police matter
* the police have no information about victims’ human rights during displacement and evictions (i.e. that alternative accommodation must be provided), and they simply expect the refugees to disappear with their remaining belongings
* after a two hour wait, a city ambulance has just taken away one women refugee who collapsed during the scuffling this morning; there was some manhandling of especially children who tried to prevent goods from being confiscated
* the churches we’ve spoken to so far have no money so are turning down the refugees’ request for immediate shelter
* Durban police captain Ragavan said that confiscated goods have been taken to the police department impoundment area
* the media have flocked to the scene, but in addition to support for immediate shelter, lawyers are still needed
A few months ago, here’s Mike Sutcliffe on how wonderfully Durban is managing xenophobia:
https://www.durban.gov.za/durban/government/munadmin/media/cmn/cmnitem.2008-07-25.8057331980/view
Anyone older than 30 years of age would contest very strongly that the recent thuggery and criminality rocking our country was simply about xenophobia. While I have no doubt we all harbour traces of racism, sexism and xenophobia, the attacks required a catalyst. In this case it was groups of men with a clear mission in mind. What happened in our city where foreigners were driven out of their homes was a “spin-off” from the unrest in Gauteng and was not directly fuelled by “locally-based anger or hatred.” The “hotspots” in our city included Albert Park, the Dalton Road hostel, Cato Crest and the area known as Road 1102 in Chatsworth.
The reality is that many foreigners and South Africans were displaced and we were tested and in many cases found wanting. From my side it is clear that national, provincial and local government must work out clearly a modus operandi on who takes the lead in such matter. Whilst primarily a national and provincial responsibility, the reality is that we are the first agencies to get called out. We worked closely with local non-governmental organizations, the Red Cross, faith based organizations, SAPS and provincial government departments, but we must clarify roles and responsibilities and there must be resources backing up those responsibilities.
When the first incident occurred, and for all others, we dispatched officials to put in place a system to provide health, sanitation, waste management, environmental health, feeding, blankets and surveillance by metro police. The health department of the city has being providing health and immunization services at all police stations, community halls, churches and mosques where refugees are being held. Additional nurses and mobile toilets and showers have been hired by the municipality at all these sites to complement the facilities provided by the local churches and mosques.
In the current tough economic climate, he said, with food prices going through the roof, it is understandable that scarcity of basic resources will bring about heightened tension amongst people, especially those who are struggling to survive.
At the height of the tension a few weeks ago, there were about 2000 that needed emergency shelter. Whilst it has been reduced to around 800, what is good is that many of those chased out of their homes are coming back and that is a hopeful sign.
We must always keep the balance between looking after the needs of those who had been displaced and find suitable refuge for them with basic sanitation, and those who face poverty and massive social challenges on a daily basis. While NGOs and the public have assisted the city in alleviating their plight, we also have to take care that we do not perpetuate the situation longer than necessary. A growing refugee problem is something we must try and avoid at all costs.
Our relationship with the local refugee community leadership is good and we must collectively work on ideas to tackle xenophobia and integration of refugees into the local community. Annually the city has hosted the world refugee day celebrations and worked with the local refugee community to explore ways of integrating refugees.
May I express our sincere gratitude to all faith based organizations, NGO’s and individual citizens who have contributed to the plight of refugees. We have realized that there is much room for improvement. At the same time we must work together to remove all criminals from our communities whether they are South African or foreign.
The situation has now stabilised and we must collectively work with all stakeholders towards a climate that promotes a society free from racism, xenophobia and poverty.
Who are the refugees remaining in Albert Park in a particularly downtrodden section of central Durban? Because they have refused offers of support from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (which they say are inadequate to their needs), the group’s plight has not been covered favourably. Below, find some audio testimonials (uploaded by Radio Continental Drift) from the DRC refugees, recorded just over three weeks ago.
Coming soon, a transcript showing explicit police intimidation and violation of the refugees’ human rights, in the course of the eviction this morning.
DURBAN SINGS
audio reports from KwaZulu-Natal
9 October 2008
part I:
http://www.archive.org/DurbanSings
A gathering of makeshift shelters in a public park in the city of Durban, South Africa. A group of Congolese have been living here under plastic cover since June. Pots over open wood fires, washing on lines between the trees, many children are running around the huts. What happened? What made the group settle here under precarious conditions?
What happens to the children when it’s raining…? Gideon, a local passer-bye talks to Delphine, one of the group who is now living at Albert Park (track 03-08). Delphine responds with questions and songs and tells their story. Rebecca Hinely and Oliver Meth, from the Centre for Civil Society are regular visitors. They join the conversation (track 02) while preparations for a chicken-curry are going on in the background.
More songs follow.
These audio reports are published to feed debate and listening exchange for the questions raised here. Comments and responses (written or audio) or links and reports of related experiences and discussions are most welcome and can be posted to the contacts below. For audio comments, please up-load your recordings on archive.org (keyword: Durban Sings) and send us the link.
Source:
Thursday, July 17, 2008
COSATU on arrest of David Masondo
The Congress of South African Trade Unions has learned with anger of the bloody assault by officers from Sandringham Police Station on David Masondo, National Chairperson of the Young Communist League of South Africa, and a member of the Central Committee of the South African Communist Party, both organisations which are among COSATU's working-class allies within the tripartite alliance.
Cde Masondo was stopped at a roadblock while jogging in his tracksuit in the suburb where he lives. When addressed by two police officers he answered in his first language, Shangaan (a language spoken both in South Africa and in Mozambique), whereupon the officers called him a "(swearword) foreigner". While the first two officers were harassing him in this way, a third more senior one intervened to say that they should calm down and search Cde David.
As one was searching him, and while Cde David consequently had his hands up in the air, the other one suddenly and without any provocation punched him in the face, starting a fracas during which several other officers assaulted him. They then took him to the police station, trumped up a charge against him, and continued to mistreat him until eventually, later, and with the assistance of his fellow SACP Central Committee members, Solly Mapaila and YCL National Secretary Buti Manamela, he was released from custody. In the process, Cdes Mapaila and Manamela were also threatened with arrest.
David Masondo is a distinguished and respected South African national leader who is also a renowned university lecturer, who will shortly be going to work at New York University for a year with the internationally famous academic David Harvey and others. He was prominent among those who spoke on public platforms condemning the xenophobic pogroms that began on 11 May 2008 in Alexandra Township, not more than two kilometres from where he lives, and where he has now himself been beaten up in a xenophobic attack - by the police!
COSATU is particularly shocked that this should have happened to a gentle person whom we know and love, and who is a valued part of the national leadership of the movement. We are determined to defend our leaders. The federation has consistently denounced xenophobia and are well aware that it most often affects the most vulnerable people in our country, including members of our affiliated unions and others who have few friends at all to defend them.
COSATU therefore backs the YCL's demand that the xenophobic officers who assaulted Cde David Masondo should be subjected to an exemplary, rigorous, and speedy disciplinary process to demonstrate to the country that the South African Police Service intends to mend its ways and purge xenophobia from its own ranks, not just in Sandringham and Alexandra, but everywhere in South Africa.
It is intolerable to COSATU that the very force that is supposed to protect everyone in the country, of whatever origin, should be continuing to prove in incidents like this, of which we believe there are many every single day, that it is itself riddled with xenophobia.
Source: Politicsweb
Cde Masondo was stopped at a roadblock while jogging in his tracksuit in the suburb where he lives. When addressed by two police officers he answered in his first language, Shangaan (a language spoken both in South Africa and in Mozambique), whereupon the officers called him a "(swearword) foreigner". While the first two officers were harassing him in this way, a third more senior one intervened to say that they should calm down and search Cde David.
As one was searching him, and while Cde David consequently had his hands up in the air, the other one suddenly and without any provocation punched him in the face, starting a fracas during which several other officers assaulted him. They then took him to the police station, trumped up a charge against him, and continued to mistreat him until eventually, later, and with the assistance of his fellow SACP Central Committee members, Solly Mapaila and YCL National Secretary Buti Manamela, he was released from custody. In the process, Cdes Mapaila and Manamela were also threatened with arrest.
David Masondo is a distinguished and respected South African national leader who is also a renowned university lecturer, who will shortly be going to work at New York University for a year with the internationally famous academic David Harvey and others. He was prominent among those who spoke on public platforms condemning the xenophobic pogroms that began on 11 May 2008 in Alexandra Township, not more than two kilometres from where he lives, and where he has now himself been beaten up in a xenophobic attack - by the police!
COSATU is particularly shocked that this should have happened to a gentle person whom we know and love, and who is a valued part of the national leadership of the movement. We are determined to defend our leaders. The federation has consistently denounced xenophobia and are well aware that it most often affects the most vulnerable people in our country, including members of our affiliated unions and others who have few friends at all to defend them.
COSATU therefore backs the YCL's demand that the xenophobic officers who assaulted Cde David Masondo should be subjected to an exemplary, rigorous, and speedy disciplinary process to demonstrate to the country that the South African Police Service intends to mend its ways and purge xenophobia from its own ranks, not just in Sandringham and Alexandra, but everywhere in South Africa.
It is intolerable to COSATU that the very force that is supposed to protect everyone in the country, of whatever origin, should be continuing to prove in incidents like this, of which we believe there are many every single day, that it is itself riddled with xenophobia.
Source: Politicsweb
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