Drop Charges Against Ayanda Kota

DEMOCRATIC LEFT FRONT

13 January 2012


PRESS STATEMENT: DROP CHARGES AGAINST AYANDA KOTA AND CALL FOR PUBLIC ACTIONS AGAINST STATE/POLICE REPRESSION OF ACTIVISTS


The Democratic Left Front (DLF) calls for the immediate release and dropping of all charges against comrade Ayanda Kota, the Chairperson of the Grahamstown-based Unemployed People’s Movement. Kota is also a founder and member of the National Committee of the (DLF). Kota will appear at 9am this morning at the Grahamstown Magistrate’s Court to answer to charges of theft and assault of police. He has been in police custody from yesterday afternoon.

According to a UPM press statement issued yesterday, a certain Constable Zulu and other members of the South African Police Services (SAPS) savagely assaulted Kota at the Grahamstown police station. This assault took place in front of several witnesses including Kota’s 6-year old son. Kota was at the police station in response to charges laid against him by a controversial academic from Rhodes University. Ostensibly, Kota had not been returned a book he had borrowed from this academic. She then proceeded to lay a charge of theft against her. The police added the assault charge.

As stated in separate statements by the UPM and by the Rhodes University-based Students for Social Justice (SSJ), Kota’s treatment at the police station is consistent with increasing police repression against activists of social movements involved in social mobilisation challenging the neo-liberal and anti-poor policies of the ANC-led state. As the SSJ statement said “We have seen this behavior in Durban, when the ANC led an attack against Abahlali basemjondolo members in the Kennedy Road Settlement. We have seen this behavior when ANCYL members attacked DL and UPM activists (including Ayanda) at the international day of climate action during COP 17. We have seen this behavior when Rehad Desai was assaulted in front of Zuma”. At its most tragic, this led to the killing of Andries Tatane by the SAPS during a protest in Meqheleng in April last year.

The state’s increasing use of excessive force is reminiscent of the old apartheid police style tactics to suppress dissent and maintain social control. The more than 50 social movements that mobilise under the DLF umbrella have a list of at least 14 others whose deaths have been reported in the media since 2000 (seven of whom had their lives ended in 2010 and 2011). In addition, a much greater number of people have been traumatised by the use of rubber bullets fired at point blank range, and by improper use of live rounds, tear gas and water cannon. Taken as a whole, it is clear that there has been widespread intimidation of people wishing to take up their constitutional right to protest, and that this threatens our hard-won democracy. The DLF is extremely concerned about the sustained actions of Jacob Zuma’s ruling elite to enhance the coercive capacities of the state.

The DLF is not surprised by yesterday’s actions of the SAPS against Kota. For a number of months now, Kota has reported suspected surveillance of his movements and family home by the local SAPS. The DLF also recalls that over the last two years, several UPM activists including Kota have been subject to problematic arrests, false charges, intimidation and harassment from the local SAPS. These SAPS actions were in cahoots with local ANC politicians and councilors following sustained UPM social mobilisation in support of demands for service delivery and accountability by the Makana Local Municipality which is mired in inefficiency, failed service delivery and corruption.

The DLF strongly condemns the SAPS for its treatment of Kota. This attack on Kota is an attack on constitutionally protected human rights and the very essence of democracy itself. This attack is an attack on social movements and the DLF itself. No amount of police brutality will solve the mass misery and poverty inflicted on our people by the pro-capitalist ANC government. This attack is a direct call to all poor and working people to intensify their actions of disciplined social protest and mobilisation against the anti-poor policies of the ANC government and municipalities as well as against police brutality.

For all the above reasons, the DLF endorses the SSJ call for an investigation of, and action against those SAPS members responsible for yesterday’s assault on Kota. We also join the UPM and SSJ call on the Makana municipality and the ANC to condemn this action against Kota in the strongest possible terms.

This is the time to mobilise affected communities and organisations to bring evidence of police brutality into the public sphere. Poor and working people subjected to police brutality and other repressive action must be able to speak out and act on the violations of their rights. Such action must also send a strong signal to the Independent Complaints Directorate (ICD), the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) and the Public Protector to undertake official investigations in terms of their constitutional and legislated mandates on cases of police violence directed at citizens engaged in protests. The DLF calls on the ICD, the SAHRC and the Public Protector to undertake statutory investigations of police brutality in a responsive and pro-active way that can also ensure that police brutality is exposed and declared a violation of, and a crime against the constitutional rights to speak and associate freely.

Beyond what these statutory institutions can do, the DLF also reiterates another call it made last year: the call for a People’s Tribunal Against Police Brutality. In the view of the DLF, such a Tribunal must hear evidence from affected communities, thus providing a voice for working class experience and anger whilst also building solidarity between organised workers, poor communities and others committed to human rights, social justice and freedom of expression. Such a Tribunal can also lay the foundation for a mass campaign that can mobilise poor and working people to speak out and act against police brutaliy, and challenge the increased militarisation and centralisation of power in an increasingly unaccountable security cluster of the state.

Finally, the DLF is extremely concerned at the failure of the Rhodes academic to take political responsibility for her action to lay charges against Kota. No matter whatever unhappiness and ill-feeling she has against Kota she is a politically mature and experienced enough individual who knows the struggles of the UPM and its harassment by the local SAPS. We are however not surprised by her actions as she has sustained an almost sadistic individual campaign against the UPM ever since it did not agree with her political views regarding participation in the May local government elections. Yesterday afternoon, our comrade Jane Duncan (a DLF national committee member and fellow academic at Rhodes University) spoke to this academic to no avail. In our engagement with her, it became clear that the actions of this individual unwittingly aid the efforts of the local ANC and SAPS to demonise Kota and his other UPM comrades. None of this will take UPM attention away from its programme of action.

ENDS

FOR COMMENTS, CONTACT:

DLF Spokespersons:
Brian Ashley – 082 085 0788
Mazibuko K. Jara – 083 651 0271
Vishwas Satgar – 082 775 3420
Website – www.democraticleft.za.net



SSJ: Benjamin Fogel, 071 224 6524

UPM: Xola Mali, 072 299 5253

Emotional Numbness

By Vusi Moloi © 2011

He or she is remote
Unable to emote
To fall short like asymptote
To fail to touch the asymptote
Facial expression robotic
Like unexploded ballistic
Cerebral mastery of syntactic
Mechanically wired robotic
Emotional numbness
Emotional absence


To explode like the ballistic
To disregard the syntactic
Unable to emote is ruthless
Like ballistic is emotionless
Incapable of empathy
Unable to connect emotionally
Unwired at the Eukaryotic
Unable despite Eucharistic
Emotionally numb
Emotionally absent

Contextual Commentary

The brain structure PLT is responsible for emotional processing. It can be induced, through environmental conditioning, to become fear based and over-reactive to an environmental stimulus. If another brain structure PFC does not balance out the PLT then an organism is a cold fish with no altruistic sentiments. Such a cold-blooded organism becomes a threat to the survival of those who stray into its life’s orbit.

Is South Africa’s 10111 A Death Trap?

By Mfene ka Ngelengele

Have you been in a life-threatening situation and you dialed South Africa’s police emergency number 10111? Did you get an immediate response? This is my story of what happened to us.

We got into a life-threatening situation whereby a 20-year-old man hit us with a brick and a bottle. My cousin was hit by the brick and the bottle. He suffered serious lacerations from the bottle and excruciating bodily harm from the brick that hit him below the belt. He dropped to the ground as a result and bled.

I rushed for a phone and dialed 10111. I couldn’t get through the first time but the second time around we spoke to someone. We gave the address, description of the life threatening situation and the urgency of the matter. The police officer promised to dispatch police to the situation.

More than 20 minutes passed and no police vehicle materialized. We called again and we had to give the address and the description of the life-threatening situation. Police vehicle was promised to be dispatched but no police vehicle was dispatched. We called the third time and spoke to a lady called Mia. She looked on the computer and found there was no record of our previous 10111 call. We lodged the new call with her and she promised that the police were being dispatched. Fifteen minutes later, no police had been dispatched. We called and spoke to a Ms. Mia to inquire if the police were coming to the scene and she said yes with a voice of irritation.

Fifteen minutes later, there was no police vehicle and in the meanwhile the situation is escalating. We called again 40 minutes later and spoke to a Mr. Pule whom we had to give the details afresh as if we had never called about this matter. He suggested that the area was too busy but agreed to take the call and dispatch the police to assist us. We called 30 minutes later and he confirmed that the police were on their way to assist us but no police showed up. The incident started around midnight and the time now is 4am and no police has materialized.

10111 Not A Free Call From Cell Phone

We ran out of airtime and couldn’t get our call through to the emergency. We had to purchase extra airtime in order to call 10111. We also discovered the hard way that calling 10111 on your cell phone is not free or cheap. You must have airtime in order to make a 10111 call.

In the meanwhile the assailant threatened to kill us all by shooting. We waited in vain for the police. This must explain why some communities take the law into their hands and solve the problems theremselves because they have the harsh experience of calling 10111 and no one showing up to assist you.

Is Calling 10111 in South Africa a Worthless Exercise?

Does this then mean that calling and pinning your hopes on 10111 is a false hope and as such a death trap? Do you have to get hurt or killed before the police are dispatched to the scene. What are your thoughts on this? In this case no police showed up! The South African Police Services are very professional and among the best on the planet but this situation is very disappointing and does not confirm our trust in 10111. If you are a police officer, politician or government officer reading this please share your thoughts and assist us in anyway you can.

I attended an emergency police and emergency services orientation whereby they teach people about emergency services and they educated us about the use of emergency but when we called the emergency on this violent situation there was no police vehicle that showed up and that means if we didn’t manage to handle the situation the best way we knew how then we would have ended up like dead.

We called again to 10111 and was just getting disconnected. We then called 10177 and asked to be put through to a police station and we were told that it was not possible. The lady then put us through to the 10111 and we spoke to a lady whom we gave the details afresh. We asked her name and she said she was Mia. We then said we had spoken to her before and lodged a police emergency call but she said she never spoke to us. PLEASE HELP!!!!!!!!!!!

End of the Rope for Malema

By Vusi Moloi © 2011


The ANC Youth League President Julius Malema has been dealt a deathblow with respect to his political influence within the ANC after getting his membership suspended for five years. Mr. Malema received an unusually harsh disciplinary sentence from the National Disciplinary Committee of the ANC via its Chairperson Mr. Derek Hanekom.

Since this is the second conviction of a similar charge for which Mr. Malema was given a suspended two year sentence last year, this means he must effectively vacate his post as the President of the ANC Youth League as of yesterday. Even though he has expressed his intention to appeal the sentence, this is not going to change the fact that he is automatically suspended for two years in accordance with the 2010 charge and guilty plea and at a minimum he must still stay outside ANC politics for two years. This shows that his political wings have been clipped as of yesterday.

Why Malema Got Into Trouble?

The problems of Mr. Malema are avoidable i.e. he didn’t have to call for the downfall of the Botswana Government, he didn’t have to embarrass a White journalist calling him by his genitalia and others. Considering that he had already been sentenced last year, one would have expected him to do whatever it took to preserve his ANC and ANC Youth League membership and never allow the repeat of the same offence. Perhaps Mr. Malema is an inflexible thinker when it comes to adaptation? He would rather be kicked out of his ANC home than comply with the rules as articulated by the ANC leadership?

He understandably represents the voice of the economically disenfranchised and has demonstrated the necessary valour, fortitude and uncompromising spirit needed. He has articulated the right issues of economic marginalization of the African natives. Along with his gutsy spirit, Mr. Malema needed to show an adaptable personality and honourable character in order to preserve his role as a champion of the disenfranchised. Above all else, he needed to show respect to his leaders and others something that he failed to do. Instead, Mr. Malema was perceived as disrespectful, confrontational and ill-disciplined when it came to selective judgement. I spoke to an old African man about the case and he observed that Mr. Malema hit the right points on the issues that affect the African natives but he was rather too impatient, unrully and disrespectful to the older generation and the President of the country Mr. Zuma. This man told me that in respect is an extremely important attribute in an African society and if you are perceived as disrespectful and not waiting your turn then you become an outcast. Mr. Malema has found himself in that position as we write these lines.

He needed to take a page from a great African military commander Umkhuzi wa Mabutho Ndlela Ka Sompisi who showed a superior skill as an adaptable individual when he served without contradiction in the two opposing regimes of King Shaka and then King Dingane who assassinated his brother Shaka. How was it possible for General Ndlela to serve under administrations that were antagonistically opposed to each other in the 1800s? The secret lies in the fact that General Ndlela was loyal to the Kingdom of Zululand regardless of who presided over it whther King Shaka or King Dingane. King Dingane was satisfied that General Ndlela was a professional and loyal soldier whose uncompromising loyalty lay in the preservation, continuity and survival of the Zulu Kingdom.

If Mr. Malema had read about General Ndlela maybe it would have made him wiser. As it stands, he fought too many battles without a unifying strategy. Today he is out in the cold with many daggers ready to backstab him politically.

Even though he is out and down, he is still in the game because all he has to do is appeal his sentence with a hope of reducing the time from five years to two years so that he takes the two year period as an introspective sabbatical to plan his comeback in 2013. If he is wise, he mustn’t get into any more fight. He must retreat in order to fight another day as the great Chinese philosopher Sun Tsu once wrote in his book The Art of War. The same philosopher also says that providence is on the side of big battalions. Mr. Malema needs time to rebuild his battalions and two years is more than enough.

Another advice is that Mr. Malema must reduce his battles. He must only fight one battle at a time and not two or three or six but just one battle! Going to Botswana to bring about the downfall of that Government was a misguided battle he didn’t need to fight.

All who are gleeful about Mr. Malema’s troubles must not count out him yet. The ANC is the only show in town and Mr. Malema understands that when he says the ANC is his only home. He has the right frame of mind. He can still recover from setback and he will rise again and this time around, hopefully wiser.

A Rare Combination

By Vusi Moloi © 2011

Hot pink like gentle fire
Decked as if to inspire
To make the heart warm
To adorn a beautiful form
To be forever heartwarming
Even though unseen before
The physique like a golden sun
Is pleasing to the eye
But blinding to behold
Despite trying to be bold
The restraint of the syntactic
Solidifies like emphatic

To induce beauty like refrain
To blend beauty and brain
A flawless curvature is galore
Must resist to avoid disfigurement
For now to embrace curtailment
Devoid of self-interest that sticks like glue
To obey the gravitational pull
To resist like the great Sitting Bull
In his tribute to the Great Spirit
To observe perils of disfigurement
While approaching the pearls by the water
Even though the water will engulf

Contextual Commentary

When the moon glowed like a red ball, it was unfeasible to resist the gentle attraction of the gravitational pull. She commanded like a majestic globe while rising soothingly above the horizon. The surface was like texture mapped to highlight the glow that inspired a sense of a worshipful approach. It was appealing to advance to the moon’s surface for purposes of exploring and admiring the lunar morphology but the anxious feeling of gravitating towards the galactic core was prohibitive. To admire the moon by the sea is death defying because her gravitational pull equally amplifies the amplitude of the rolling waves in whose body of water the admirer will be contained. Is it possible and commendable to traverse the waterways of the moon?

Tactile Flow

By Vusi Moloi © 2011

Tactile flow must never atrophy
Like molasses, before they solidify
Cautious juices flow unimpeded
After gaining their sacred trust
Lubricant flows from the depths
A sacred oil to salute the gods
To reward a directed pilgrim
Whose life hitherto is interim

Tactile flow oozing even higher
Like black molasses by the fire
To overflow before nightfall
To fall into trance after squeezing
A glorious appearing like sapphire
Black molasses before they retire
To peel away like yellow plantain
The sweet innermost we must retain

Contextual Commentary

The medicine plant of Matamong is most trusted for its healing powers. The sacred juices of the plant are embedded and locked inside to preserve a flawless purity. A barbed membrane guards the innermost to prevent tampering by those not sanctioned by the ancestors. When the medicine woman approaches the sacred grounds, she makes incantations to the ancestors to seek a rite of passage. When the ancestors disapprove, she must gracefully adjourn until another day. Happily for her, it is fortuitous that the planets are in alignment and she is permitted to come within reach of the sacred grounds.

The galactic core of the heavens has accepted her because her people are descendants of Mphatlalatsane of the stellar universe. She burns a special incense Impepho to announce her presence to the ancestors. Thereafter, she breaks into a warrior chant of those who have gone before her, brandishing a shining spear that has been fortified with strong medicines. The gathering of the spirits is like an insignia authorizing the pilgrim to explore and relish the succulent plant of the African soil. The revered tradition must continue so that the future generations can walk on footsteps of those who have gone before them.
The Indomitable Mongoose, by Vusi Moloi © 2008, Canada.

The Broken Triangle

By Vusi Moloi © 2011

The genesis like a triangle
To evolve after an angle
We observed geometric rules
Unaware of entrenching tools
Hitherto, a broken triangle
Disconnected despite an angle

When connection they impede
The magnetic must recede
Chastised on Canadian ice like spruced
Beautiful connection was refused
A microscopic mind partitioning
Arrested angle to atrophy
Broken lines were connective
But network prohibitive

Contextual Commentary

The unfaltering desert flower Mponeng hides underground while awaiting the advent of the falling rain. Until the heavens persuade some clouds to burst and pour their hearts out, the flower must remain in the safe hands of the great underground for the coming rain.

The thunderous lightening has already flashed across the heavens to turn a page on the dry season below. The vicarious stallion and great protector was fired up to make the treacherous crossing across the fearsome waterways but the zebra clan remains behind raising questions on the timing of his crossing. The large body of water, like the great Atlantic, is now a fearsome divide between him and the clan. Did the great protector cross prematurely and thus misjudged the crossing? This may very well explain the persistence of the dry season in the great Kalahari which puts him at the mercy of the harsh circumstances because there is no going back after the crossing.

However, the positive energy of the African soil is endless. The brilliant red sand of the Kalahari dances beautifully in the musical wind currents of the heavens while the electric heartstrings of the Kalahari vibrate energetically as if under a gentle plucking by the heavens. Her heartstrings are like the masterful kora strings of West Africa which trigger a trance response in the heart of the great protector as he contemplates the crushing dry season below. Such an activist energy, which cannot be scientifically accounted for, refuses to be interjected by the harsh events on the ground as attested by the apparent transcendence of the desert spirits. The desert flower is oblivious to such convivial ambience and thus unable to relish the momentous enjoyment because she remains underground listening intently for the coming rain. While the desert sands shift and dance endlessly under the infusion of the red disco colors of the heavens, the flower’s patience is wearing thin as she religiously listens for the slightest signs of the falling rain. Is the much awaited rain coming soon? Who knows when that shall be?
The Indomitable Mongoose, by Vusi Moloi © 2010, Canada.