Assassinated Abahlali baseMjondolo leader 'knew he would be killed'

Shack dwellers say slain eKhenana leader Lindokuhle Mnguni knew his life would be snatched away long before his death last weekend.

The 28-year-old chairperson of the eKhenana branch of Abahlali baseMjondolo (ABM) succumbed to gunshot wounds he suffered on Saturday morning.

Speaking at his memorial service on Thursday, ABM’s Thapelo Mohapi said Mnguni was with his girlfriend in his shack when a group of assailants broke in in the early hours of Tuesday and unleashed a hail of bullets on them while they were asleep.

“He was attacked by two people on Saturday around 1.30am who gained access to the communal [area] by cutting through the fence. They broke the window in Mnguni’s shack and fired indiscriminately, killing him, while his girlfriend sustained three bullet wounds in her lower body,” he said.

Ngcobo was rushed to hospital, where she was reportedly in a “critical but stable” condition. She was present at the memorial service.

Mnguni is the third leader from eKhenana to be gunned down inside the commune in less then six months.

Deputy chairperson Ayanda Ngila was gunned down in broad daylight on March 8, in an incident that Mnguni narrowly escaped, while woman’s league leader Nokuthula Mabaso was assassinated on two months later.

The total number of ABM members who have been killed now stands at 24. 

ABM president Sibusiso Zikode told TimesLIVE they were all aware that none of them were safe in eKhenana, and that the leaders had been strategically targeted to instil fear among residents so they vacate the land.

“I was telling abahlali [residents] that the only question we have is: am I the next? Because we do know who will follow. But it's better to die for the truth, for something you believe in and love. Mnguni made it clear that it's either socialism or death, there was no compromise,” he said.

Zikode said they knew Mnguni would be killed — just as they did with all the other victims — when he started getting death threats. He said the pattern was always the same.

Landu Tshazi, Mnguni’s best friend, reiterated the fact that everyone, including Mnguni himself, knew that sooner or later “they” would get him. He said Mnguni lived by the “socialism or death” mantra.

Mbalenhle Kubheka, a human rights attorney and ABM lawyer, reiterated Tshazi’s sentiments, recalling a moment in June when they attended an event in Johannesburg where Mnguni explained why he didn’t drink alcohol.

“He said: ‘I want to be as prepared as possible when my day comes, because it will. I know they will not confront me, it will be a surprise attack. When that day comes I don't want to have any substance in my blood. They must find me in my natural state,’” she said, quoting him.

At the time of his death, Mnguni was not living in the communal shack area. He had gone there to attend a meeting to discuss plans to revive the commune’s garden and the poultry business on Wednesday but the meeting took too long and it was decided it would resume on Friday. It started at 7pm and finished around 10pm on Friday, so he decided to sleep in his shack there. 

In response to the numerous threats on his life and to him surviving an assassination attempted on the day that Ngila was killed, Zikode said they had moved him to a safe house in town as a safety measure.

“Mnguni was [supposed to be] at a safe house. He was not allowed to go to eKhenana, which is why we had been paying a private safe house in town because we knew he was vulnerable,” said Zikode.

“He was not living in eKhenana permanently, he was still testing [the] waters. So it happened on that day that he went to help because socialism is in his veins and as a young person he was very active and always willing to lend a helping hand.”

Zikode said after the arrest of the suspect in Ngila’s murder case, as well as that of Mabaso, there was a feeling that the threat had slightly diminished. In fact, Mnguni wanted to return permanently to the commune as he felt imprisoned by being so far away from his people.

“This is an activist, you can not just cage an activist. He has freedom, he has needs. Activism is in his veins. In fact, he didn’t want us to renew his contract in the safe house because he felt like he was in prison, but we told him that we couldn’t just cut his security just because the risk was lower. We convinced him that we would do it slowly while monitoring the situation,” he said.

The security measures did not end with Mnguni though. Since they knew that no one from the commune was safe they also took steps to improve security measures in the area. 

“For eKhenana as a community, we electrified the settlement because criminals used to hide by the trees when it was dark. We also fenced with razor wire. Obviously people can find a way around it when they are really determined, but at least they know that when they pass it they are going to a private property,” he said.

“But one of our exceptional, if not special, efforts was to install CCTV cameras in the commune. His killers knew that the settlement had electricity. They knew it was fenced and they knew that there were CCTV cameras, yet they still did it.

“We hope that the Ngcobo’s testimony as well as the CCTV footage will be enough evidence.”

The organisation has also noticed that their activists were hunted, said Zikode, especially those who were known to be witnesses in court. Mabaso, a key eyewitness, was assassinated a day before a suspect on Ngila’s murder case was due to appear in court. Now Mnguni was killed four days before another suspect is due to appear in court for the murder of Mabaso.

He added that Mnguni was meant to go overseas later this year to learn more about the practical applications of the socialist approach in real life.

“He was going to attend a political class in Johannesburg between the 16th and 17th of September, then go to Geneva [in Switzerland]. We get a lot of invitations from overseas that is not attended by anyone but certain leaders, and Mnguni was going to represent us this time.”

Zikode said they were in s tricky position because fundamentally they did not believe in violence, but they had also lost trust in getting protection from law enforcement.

“We have committed ourselves into a nonviolent approach. That is our principle. Now that the law enforcement agencies — including the NPA, SAPS, SAHRC, NDPP, we have written complaints to all those institutions — have failed to protect us, [it has] shown the way forward is to protect ourselves.

“That does not mean we have to take law into our hands, it simply means we have no confidence in them, so we have no choice but to look after one another,” he said.

Kubheka said it was frustrating that people kept being assassinated in the same commune, with little to no efforts from the police to put an end on these killings. She complained about the conduct of the task team meant to deal with these issues.

"The attitude I'm getting from the task team that was dispatched was disgusting — to a point when you have to tell them [to] rather stop the investigation if they continue treating them in a way they were doing," she said.

Kubheka revealed that she had also received threats, had her car jammed and her sibling was followed while using her car.

She said they had worked tirelessly with both Mabaso and Mnguni to collect all their evidence for the cases ABM were facing, be it as complainants or the accused. She said her only regretwas that Mnguni and Ngila were killed before they could clear their names after being painted as murders.

“Obviously the matter that they were attending recently is not going to proceed because they have killed Mnguni and Ngila, who were the alleged main perpetrators, but their names were not cleared. We wanted to see it to finality. We wanted the people who are known to be the assailants to get into the witness box and testify ... but sadly it didn’t happen,” she said.

“They really believed in the law, so we wanted the complainants to come into the box, as well as the witnesses, and testify. Now these cases that involved Mnguni, no one who was a complainant or witness will ever be held accountable because he is no more.

“The case that we were attending was already at the trial court because Mnguni said I should leave the representations and go straight to the box because he wanted the 'witnesses' to prove their allegations.”

Kubheka said Mnguni’s murder would not affect the cases they were complainants in because they have overwhelming evidence and other eye witnesses.

He will be laid to rest on Sunday in Pietermaritzburg.

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