Asked about Defend Our Democracy’s recent conference for democratic renewal and change, Abahlali baseMjondolo national secretary Thapelo Mohapi indicated that while his organisation supported the campaign, minimal solidarity has been shown with the group in response to the intimidation, even killings, of its leaders and members.
“Their silence is very loud when we are killed. When it suits them, we must now be on board. We are part of [the conference] because we want to defend our democracy. People must speak when Abahlali are killed. Democracy is under threat when people in shacks are killed, when services on the ground are not provided.” Those words must register forcefully for those of us who are part of the Defend Our Democracy campaign, perhaps even more so for those of us who have been beneficiaries of recent powerful solidarity and support.
Mohapi’s words are not hyperbole. Since the start of the year, three of Abahlali’s leaders have been killed. Most recently, on April 5, Nokuthula Mabaso was gunned down, a horrific killing witnessed by her children. Mabaso’s murder came a day before her testimony was to be used in court to argue against the bail application of a prominent, politically connected individual accused of attacking and killing several community members.
She would have known that testifying against him would probably put a price on her head. She was also the main respondent in an eviction case brought by the municipality against her community in eKhanane. Those roles imply a level of trust in our system of administration of justice — that it would honour her testimony, secure her protection and that of her community, and fairly and dispassionately determine the rights and entitlements at issue.
Police have still not collected a bullet they missed when they finally arrived on the scene. A passer-by handed it to Abahlali’s offices for safekeeping
She was let down spectacularly. Despite the Cato Manor police station being a mere 500m from where Mabaso was gunned down, it took the police more than two hours to reach the scene of her murder. Abahlali issued a press statement on Tuesday saying that it was exactly two months since her murder, that there was still no investigating officer assigned to the case, and no case number for the matter. Police have still not collected a bullet they missed when they finally arrived on the scene. A passer-by handed it to Abahlali’s offices for safekeeping.
Mabaso’s murder; police inaction; the apparent lack of consequences for her killers; a community traumatised by the brutal slaying of their leaders; facing eviction and having only recently survived devastating floods ... If you think our constitutional democracy benighted, you’d have your confirmation.
But the chief failure is not an absence of solutions. We have those in spades: for unemployment and homelessness and scandalising levels of poverty, for our power and security and governance crises. Where we seem to fail is agreement on which of the many solutions being punted for the varied issues might work best and how we secure implementation.
Practical action
Were things as they should be, the government would be the intermediary, a conduit through which agreement and resolution might be shaped and determined. It won’t do so: it is too riven by dysfunctionality, but it also increasingly has no stake in doing so. Comprised principally of a governing party facing plummeting electoral support, the incentive to accentuate division and scapegoat groups for its desultory performance becomes ever more pronounced.
Feedback received by the Defend Our Democracy campaign in anticipation of the conference for democratic renewal and change was that communities and people want practical points of action to move us past our slow-grind implosion — that they don’t want more endless talk.
And yet talking to each other, trying to find each other — not simply cowering in the literal and metaphorical dark of stage 6 load-shedding — may be among the most critical, course-correcting things we as South Africans can do.
• Fritz, a public interest lawyer, is director of the Helen Suzman Foundation.
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