The Mail & Guardian reports on the attacks on Abahlali in Kennedy road. One comment below the story really hit home – what is really going on in the shackslands – were the press rarely reports?. I quote it below:
“Reading this, I get very, very nervous. There are 2 issues in Niren’s article which should make me nauseous with alarm: (i) that ethnic tension is escalating at this level in this informal settlement. Labelling it “criminal” is equivalent to describing a lion’s diet as “non-vegan”. Get friggin’ real. And point (ii) is that the ANC is alleged to be reacting to the legal loss against the KRDC and Abahlali. Abahlali happens to be a strong, growing, poor-based grassroots movement which chose to link up with UKZN academics in the School of Development Studies on specific issues. If Abahlali is perceived as a threat to the ruling party, then one really has to wonder what is happen on the ground. Out of the limelight. In the small towns and villages. Is dissent being shut down? Is grassroots politicisation outside of the ANC’s brand being eviscerated? This is very, very worrying. At the moment, Niren has reported on an incident. The M&G must continue to explore this possibility, looking for confirming or disconfirming events. We, the citizenry, have to know this. Out of the limelight, in the dark of nights within the shacklands, something truly scary could be going on – politicians using every filthy trick possible, including ethnic differences, to get their way; the repercussions of which lead straight to door of ethnic cleansing and then genocide. This has been the fate of Serbia, Czechoslovakia, Rwanda, Ukraine, Iran, Turkey, Albania. The list is far too long.”
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I wonder would the ANC stoop to that? I am currently reading A Long walk to freedom, and Mandela frequently mentions that he disliked the way the White governments used the divide and rule methods of encouraging tribal separations. The whole point of the ANC was to unite people as Africans and to ignore tribal differences. It would be disturbing if they are resorting to the thing they once fought so strongly.