Tuesday, 28 February 2012

This morning Ayanda Kota received a letter, dated 22 February 2012, from the Senior Public Prosecutor in Grahamstown. It states that all charges against Ayanda have been dropped (the charges were theft, resisting arrest and assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm). No doubt the ruling party hoped that by dropping the charges outside of the court they could avoid the protest planned at the court for tomorrow. However the protest by UPM and SSJ will go ahead tomorrow as planned.

Although the charges have been dropped the fact remains that Ayanda was arrested on a bogus charge and assaulted and humiliated in front of his six-year-old son who had to see him being beaten and dragged off to the holding cell with his trousers down while the police continued to hit him and taunt him about being the Grocott’s Mail 'newsmaker of the year'. The fact remains that across the country ward committees, branch executive committees of the ruling party and ward councillors are working with the police and community policing forums to repress independent political mobilisation. Repression is a national problem and our protest tomorrow will be against all repression of all movements.

It is clear that the political climate in Grahamstown is worsening. There have been public death threats from members of the ruling party members, arrests on bogus charges, assaults at the hands of the police, and unlawful restrictions on political activities by the courts. In fact the march that has been planned for tomorrow was first banned. The ban was unlawful and the convener had to go to court to get it unbanned. When he met with the police after the court had unbanned the march he was told that there was a national list of people given to the police by Crime Intelligence and that if anyone on that list is going to speak at a march the police must call a special meeting to discuss security when that person is speaking. He was told that one of our comrades is on that list. It is clear that we are being watched closely.

It is very worrying to see the ANC rolling back democracy with the Secrecy Bill and attempts to reduce the power of the Constitutional Court. While we would like to see the media being democratized and real support for community media the fact is that now we can, with good organization, access the media. For instance our movement got very good coverage recently in the Daily Dispatch for the struggle that Ben Mafani is leading for justice for the people of Glemore. And while it is not always easy for poor people to access the courts everyone knows about the major victories that movements like the Treatment Action Campaign and Abahlali baseMjondolo have won in court. But although it might require organization and struggle to access the media and the courts it is still possible. It is impossible to access the government. People that start off trying to talk to the government end up getting shot at with rubber bullets and arrested. But unfortunately the media representation of the struggle for political freedom in South Africa has been dominated by the concerns of the middle class. Very little is said about the ongoing day to day intimidation and repression of grassroots activists and movements. This is why we will occupy the streets of Grahamstown tomorrow and insist that political freedom must be for all. Our protest against repression is going ahead.

As some of our comrades are aware after Ayanda’s arrest a document was circulated in which UPM and various individuals were slandered. For many comrades this document seemed to be the delivery on the ANC's decision that Ayanda and UPM must be ‘character assassinated’. And there are clear links between the local ANC and the writer of this document, the notorious slanderer Heinrich Bohmke. We have two signed affidavits from people that were offered large sums of money by Mohammed Moraad to give negative information on Ayanda and UPM to be included in this document. The affidavits also state that according to Moraad Claudia Martinez-Mullen, the highly authoritarian orthodox Marxist academic that first laid the charges against Ayanda, was also involved in this process. She has strong connections to the authoritarian left who are mostly middle class people, many of them white who have no following but think that they have a right to control all popular struggles. This left has done so much damage to grassroots struggles over the years and their attempts to impose their authority on popular struggles has been rejected by all credible grassroots formations. But Moraad is directly linked to the ANC. He is a businessman who rents office space to the local ANC. When UPM was first formed he approached the organisation and offered financial support in exchange for support for his Islamicist agenda. He wanted the movement to protest against the Adult World shop. However he soon came under pressure from the ANC as a result of his link to UPM and he then offered Ayanda a government job in exchange for the movement to cease its criticism of the ANC. Ayanda refused this job and this is when the threats and harassment from the ANC started.

We don’t take Bohmke seriously. No credible people take Bohmke seriously. But when people claiming to be on the left are producing slander against activists suffering repression at the hands of the ruling party (activists who have been targeted for ‘character assassination’ according to the ANC’s own internal documents) and they are working with local ANC elites to finance the production of this slander the left has a serious problem. And we do take the integrity of the left seriously.

We are aware that other movements and individuals think that Bohmke’s ravings are beneath contempt and should not be dignified with any response. It is true that his poisonous attacks on individuals and movements are always grossly dishonest from start to finish. In Durban his support for the ruling party's repression against ABM was completely discredited in court when the court found that that the state had no case at all against ABM and that the ANC witnesses had lied and the police had fabricated evidence. It would be a serious mistake to take Bohmke seriously as a participant in the debates on the left in South Africa. But while we respect the views of those that have advised us to just ignore Bohmke’s slander and to rather focus on building our movement we feel strongly that the left must confront itself honestly and openly if we are to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past. The reality is that some of those people in the left who think that they have a right to rule all popular struggles have used Bohmke’s slander to try and destroy movements that they can’t control. A lot of people are fighting ruthless turf wars in the left and some of them have been willing to use Bohmke’s attacks for their own interests. For instance when the ANCY YL were using Bohmke’s slander against ABM in KZN the ANC YL openly stated that they had been personally given Bohmke’s slander by a well-known left academic in Durban.

Some people are wondering if Bohmke is working for the state. There have been warnings from within the ANC to this effect and the fact that he has admitted that he is a consultant to the SAPS has strengthened this view. The fact that the people and movements that he attacks are the same people and movements under pressure from state intelligence, and that he often makes the same arguments that are made in the propaganda of the ruling party, have also made some comrades suspicious. The fact that the ANC YL and the YCL have circulate Bohmke’s attacks to their members also makes many people suspicious about who he is working for. But others think that he is a leftist with personal psychological problems that just wants to destroy any movement or individual that he cannot control. Others think that he is just a crank and that there is no point in trying to work out what drives him and that no one in their right mind would take him seriously for a minute. No doubt the truth will emerge in due course.

We are joining the Anti-Eviction Campaign and Abahlali baseMijondolo in publicly refusing to work with that part of the left that supports state repression against activists and movements and engages in dirty tricks, slander, purges, character assassination etc to try and destroy movements that they cannot control. Sectarianism can do nothing but damage to our struggles and it is time to put the left on a new footing that welcomes open and honest debate and critique but rejects censorship, slander, unfounded personal attacks and complicity with state repression. Whatever the personal motivation is of those few people on the left that have supported Bohmke, whether publicly or privately, the fact is that they are objectively acting in support of the repressive structures of the state and they are not our comrades. They have made themselves as much our enemies as the worst elements in the state. A line must be drawn in the sand.

State repression of grassroots struggles is getting worse and will continue to get worse. There is a long and hard struggle ahead and the left must get its house in order. A clear break with sectarianism will be a good start. We don’t all have to agree with each other about ideology or strategies and tactics but we must be able to work together and to freely and honestly debate issues in a way that builds our movements and strengthens our struggle.

Contact: Ben Mafani 072 712 0958; Asanda Ncwadi 078 408 9615

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