Mpondo lives count

“In Natal, apartheid is a deadly cancer in our midst, setting house against house, and eating away at the precious ties that bound us together. This strife among ourselves wastes our energy and destroys our unity. My message to those of you involved in this battle of brother against brother is this: take your guns, your knives, and your pangas, and throw them into the sea! Close down the death factories. End this war now!”

- Nelson Mandela’s speech on the day of his release, Cape Town, 11 February 1990.

Recent media reports of a cleansing ceremony to be conducted and funded by representatives of the KwaZulu-Natal provincial government and King Goodwill Zwelithini after the killing of 15 Gauteng hostel dwellers since June last year raises disturbing questions. The KZN Member of the Executive Council for Community Safety and Liaison, Willies Mchunu, is quoted as stating that a committee of 32 izindunas from the affected areas in KZN have formed the basis of a Peace Facilitation Committee, and that his department will provide the technical expertise and resources required to support the process. He was further quoted as claiming that significant progress has been made towards stabilizing the Gauteng hostels and that 174 individuals displaced during the violence have been reintegrated and returned to their original hostel rooms. It is understood that KZN Premier, Senzo Mchunu, has also been involved in the initiative.

This is a worthy intervention by our provincial leaders to bring peace to war-torn Gauteng hostels. But have these same leaders not noticed that 42 people have now lost their lives in the Glebelands violence – more than double the number allegedly killed in Gauteng and right under their noses here in KZN – or the hundreds displaced and dispossessed from the hostel since March last year? That our local government representatives would prioritise the lives and safety of residents in another province, while seemingly turning their backs on the burning conflict in their own backyard raises all kinds of uncomfortable questions.

How can it be that traditional leaders have met at the king’s Nongoma palace to discuss the Gauteng violence, but remained silent about the Glebelands conflict taking place in KZN? Could it be because the people dying at Glebelands are mostly not Zulu? Is this selective vision the result of tribal prejudice – the rumoured ‘rise of Zulu nationalism’ – which appears linked to a ‘100% Zulu president’ and which is manifest in the predominance of Zulu speakers in key national portfolios?

The KZN government has proved it can move swiftly in Gauteng. Yet the eThekwini Municipality remains bogged down in a R10 million tender process for Glebelands security measures committed to by the Premier a year ago – security measures which, in any case, appear poorly conceived and merely likely to provide further economic enrichment opportunities to the politically connected instead of stopping the slaughter. Whose interests are being served that so many have been allowed to die at Glebelands, yet killing on a lesser scale in another province galvanizes provincial and traditional leaders into action – leaders who have yet to acknowledge the socioeconomic suffering of the thousands in the rural areas who have been indirectly impacted by the loss, displacement or dispossession of their Glebelands breadwinners? Surely all loss of life should draw equal condemnation? Or are some lives simply worth less than others?

At his inaugural speech at the Union Buildings in Pretoria on 10 May 1994, when the ANC became the first democratically elected political party to represent all South Africans, President Nelson Mandela said: “We pledge ourselves to liberate all our people from the continuing bondage of poverty, deprivation, suffering, gender and other discrimination.”

It would seem that certain factions within the current ruling elite have forgotten these noble ideals, or chosen to disregard them in favour of personal enrichment and ethnic loyalty – its evil twin. Just as xenophobia – which, coincidentally, only raised its bloody head during the emergence of Zulu nationalist power – has been used by state players to divide and weaken communities, pit African brother against African brother in a struggle, often to the death, over unequally distributed services and access to resources, so too, it would seem, as the ruling party is increasingly associated with corruption, cadre deployment and utter disregard for the plight of the poor, is tribalism once again used to divide, undermine and rule what have become, often deeply disillusioned and dissatisfied communities - ‘troublesome’ to the state. It would seem the current regime drank deeply from the bitter cup of divisive apartheid hate-mongers.

Glebelands Hostel has an overwhelming majority of residents from the Eastern Cape – most of whom have remained staunch ANC supporters. Comments by Glebelands residents that, “the councilor doesn’t like us Pondos,” as well as statements taken from victims of police brutality, in which it is alleged that officers have stated, “you Pondos think you’re clever,” are cause for great concern.

Is it coincidence, too, that many targets of the hostel violence were also former COPE supporters (a party rooted in the Eastern Cape) who, after the 2009 conflict, returned to the ANC, but remained mostly dissatisfied with local government’s service delivery failure and mobilized the community in the 2013 protests against the ward councilor? Some of these individuals were allegedly warned at the time by local branch committee leaders that they should stop bringing the party into disrepute, or, “see what will happen.”

Tribalism is always linked to struggles over resources - political or economic. This raises the question, with local government elections looming, can these ‘troublesome’ Pondos who agitated about service delivery be trusted to vote for the ANC in the local government elections, given that KZN has become the most important ANC stronghold and that urban areas will be heavily contested, including by the Economic Freedom Fighters party?

If these apparent ethnic and political prejudices do not reflect reality, then the provincial government and Zulu king have done little to dispel such perceptions by rushing to aid Zulu hostel dwellers in Gauteng at the seeming expense of Glebelands’ majority Mpondo community’s safety and security. Local, provincial and traditional leaders’ persistent failure to resolve the Glebelands conflict is, whatever the reason, an astounding indictment on their commitment to roll out “a better life for all,” particularly “a better life” for ALL hostel dwellers.

Now that this community seems to have been abandoned by its KZN leaders, should Glebelands residents appeal to the Eastern Cape provincial government to assist Mpondo people who have been made refugees in KwaZulu-Natal and who appear to be the targets of what some are beginning to call ethno-political violence?

Members of the increasingly marginalized Glebelands community now ask why the eThekwini Municipality provides free buses for those aligned with the local warlord to attend funerals in their rural KZN homes, while families and friends of Mpondos killed in the hostel violence, struggle to repatriate their deceased or attend their Eastern Cape burial ceremonies. The community has also questioned the provincial government’s motives now that it seems the SANDF [South African National Defence Force"> will be deployed to quell KwaMashu Hostel killings, yet a private security company has been appointed to keep the peace at Glebelands. Some have gone so far as to suggest: “It looks like some people are making money from Mpondo deaths.” It has also not escaped the notice of residents that arrests were made within 24 hours after the latest KwaMashu killings, but 19 months and 42 murders have elapsed since the first killing at Glebelands and the police have yet to take conclusive action. They also question why top politicians visit KwaMashu each time someone dies, while the Glebelands community last saw their leaders a year ago, when, according to residents, “we were told we now had peace and must not in the eyes of the Premier’s police – then we were tortured.” The community asks too, why negotiations – ostensibly suspended for the 2014 elections - regarding the ward councilor’s alleged poor performance and divisive conduct, were never resumed. Many have suggested that the Glebelands violence that erupted directly after discussions were halted, appear to indicate sinister political motives. One resident recently described the hostel violence: “It looks like someone has approved a project to kill us - we don’t know when this project will be completed.”

Madiba was a great statesman and bridge-builder and stood firmly against all forms of discrimination. To prevent a return to the dark days when difference was used to maintain the power of an inhumane and reprehensible regime, we must once again combat those with vested interests from drawing lines of blood across our communities. We have a duty to remember Madiba’s words: “No one is born hating another person because of the colour of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.”

With the community set to attend the burial of community leader William Mthembu this coming weekend (25 – 27 September) and threats of attacks on attendees and the warlord’s imminent invasion of Mthembu’s former block, it is hoped that the police set aside any real or perceived ethnic or political prejudice, and heed the community’s urgent pleas for the deployment of Tactical Response Team and National Intervention Units from outside KZN to ensure this sad ceremony does not turn into a bloodbath.

Twenty-five years after Mandela’s release, for the sake of the affected Glebelands community – a community that remains steadfastly united across ethnic lines – for all our sakes - we must again take up his call for KZN leaders to, “End this war now!” End this war at Glebelands NOW!

* Vanessa Burger is an independent community activist for human rights and social justice.

* THE VIEWS OF THE ABOVE ARTICLE ARE THOSE OF THE AUTHOR AND DO NOT NECESSARILY REFLECT THE VIEWS OF THE PAMBAZUKA NEWS EDITORIAL TEAM

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