The attack on Kennedy Road in Durban, South Africa, occurred on 26 September 2009. A mob of men armed with bush knives, guns and bottles entered the Kennedy Road informal settlement searching for leaders of the shackdwellers movement Abahlali baseMjondolo (AbM). They looted shacks and threatened residents, before attacking a hall where a youth meeting was happening. Two people were killed and around a thousand were displaced. In the aftermath, AbM representatives such as S'bu Zikode went into hiding and thirteen AbM members were arrested.
The attack was immediately condemned by academics and church leaders, and Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International later expressed concerns. The trial of the Kennedy 12 experienced delays, leading the Centre for Constitutional Rights and Amnesty to raise questions about the process. In 2011, all the charges were dropped; AbM then sued the local police and the eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality. The incident is regarded as an attack by the police and the local branch of the African National Congress (ANC) against the AbM movement.
Attack
In 2009, an estimated 10,000 people were living at Kennedy Road, one of many informal settlements in Durban. The shackdwellers movement Abahlali baseMjondolo (AbM) had been founded at Kennedy Road and campaigned on issues such as better sanitation, which brought it into conflict with the ruling African National Congress (ANC). On Saturday 26 September 2009, a weekend of Heritage Day events began at Kennedy Road, with an AbM youth camp. At around 22:30, a mob armed with pangas, sjamboks, guns and bottles entered the settlement. The men woke residents up by banging on their doors and made threats whilst searching for AbM leaders such as Lindela Figlan and S'bu Zikode. Figlan had received warnings that his life was in danger and was forced to hide in his shack with his wife and 3-year-old daughter. He was saved by locking his door from the outside, so it appeared that he was not at home. The mob shouted that Mpondo people were taking over the settlement from Zulu people. The police were called by residents, but did not come. At around 01:00, about fifty armed men approached the hall where the youth camp was taking place. The police came and by 03:00 the mob had dispersed. The attack was witnessed by the makers of the film Dear Mandela.
At around 03:30, the mob returned to the hall, smashing its windows and entering inside. Two people were killed in the ensuing disorder. Later, shacks belonging to members of the Kennedy Road Development Committee (KRDC) were demolished and others were looted by men shouting "Down with Abahlali! Down with the KRDC!". An estimated one thousand inhabitants fled after being threatened with violence and rape, as the violence continued into the next day. Both Figlan and Zikode (who was not present) went into hiding.
In the aftermath, nobody from the mob was arrested but thirteen members of AbM were arrested and charged with murder. Eight were granted bail and five were remanded.
Reactions
On Monday 28 September, a letter from South African academics was published which condemned the attack and raised concerns that local police and ANC members had colluded with the mob. Signatories included the academics John Dugard, Steven Friedman, Marie Huchzermeyer, Martin Legassick, Michael Neocosmos and Peter Vale. Jacob Zuma, President of South Africa, was heckled when making speeches and Edwin Ronald Makue, representing the South African Council of Churches (SACC), called it "an attack on democracy".
The Congress of the People (COPE) party claimed that the two murdered men were members of their group and that they had been killed by people from the ANC. COPE was an offshoot from the ANC and there were tensions between the groups; the slogans shouted by the mob about supporting Zulu people were taken to be a coded message for supporting the ANC. The local authorities blamed vigilantes connected to Abahlali baseMjondolo for the violence. A representative of KwaZulu-Natal province said to the Mail & Guardian newspaper that the "underlying cause for the violence was criminal". The KwaZulu-Natal Department of Safety and Security held meetings at Kennedy Road for stakeholders which were condemned as unrepresentative by church leaders, AbM and the Mail & Guardian, the latter describing them as "a sham" and an "exercise in speaking with forked tongues". Internationally, intellectuals such as Noam Chomsky, Naomi Klein and Slavoj Zizek released a statement supporting AbM and groups such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International expressed concern about the killings.