Although Abahlali baseMjondolo is a much smaller organisation than the ANC has been for some time, it is nevertheless comparable in many respects to what the ANC once was.
Since the early days of the formation of AbM there have been a series of illegal and violent attacks on the organisation, illegal removals, illegal assaults, illegal killings. In the case of AbM, the movement says the ANC has used the police force, the eThekwini Municipality, sometimes private security and other forces for the destruction of homes, random intimidation and killings. It is said in aafter the killing of Nokuthula Mabaso, a leading figure in their eKhenana Commune and Abahlali’s Women’s League on 5 May 2022, that the law enforcement authorities are totally unreliable, taking instructions from local ANC figures.
“Nokuthula was one of a number of people who witnessed the murder of Ayanda, and could potentially have been a witness if the matter went to trial. She was also the main respondent to the eviction case that was brought by the municipality in eKhenana. She played a key role in fighting for the occupation, and in turning the occupation into a Commune.
Neither the minister of police, the Human Rights Commission nor the NPA have addressed their crisis despite multiple communications. The aftermath of Mabaso’s murder illustrates the impunity that reigns: Definitions of treason tend to focus on overthrowing the state, an act of violence against the state or the government of the day. A lot of trials for treason in South African history have in fact related to that. We must ask ourselves, however, what treason means when the government of the day consistently deploys the state to attack the people of South Africa.
Unless we rethink the meaning of some words, unless we take these words and reconsider them in light of what is currently experienced, we cannot make sense of the current situation, the dire crisis from which it is difficult to escape.that the condition for stability of the ANC and its continued existence is in fact continued impunity for very many of its leading figures who have committed serious crimes .
It may seem dramatic to use the word treason, but it is in fact understating the gravity of the current situation to merely describe it as prosecutions failing or law enforcement being very slow, and a range of other low-key expressions of frustration with the progress in bringing wrongdoers to book.