Black November at Glebelands

20 November 2015

By: Vanessa Burger

Gunshots rang out at Glebelands Hostel again last night. Another two men now lie in hospital fighting for their lives. A Block P resident was shot at close range while fixing a vehicle next to the same block at about 19h45. Another man, believed to be a foreigner working at Reunion Station, who had been employed by the resident to help repair his vehicle, was also shot. The resident is believed to have been a former COPE member and associated with former block committee structures – sufficient reason to be killed at Glebelands. His foreign assistant was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. His identity is currently unknown.

The police were reportedly buying cigarettes at the spaza container at Block O at the time. Glebelands is saturated in blue at the moment. The shooters were alleged to have come from Block O, as were the attackers of another resident who escaped a hail of bullets on the night of 11 October. The police took over an hour to travel the few metres from their static deployment at the sports field on that occasion. Secureco – the eThekwini Municipality’s pet private security project – did not bother to respond at all. This resident had also been a former COPE supporter and related to a block committee member. He was also from the Eastern Cape.

Immediately after last night’s shooting the police reportedly drove past Block P – where the victims lay bleeding – to the sports field, one assumes to fetch backup, before returning to the scene. Do they not have radios in their vehicles? Or cellphones? The shooters were witnessed running towards the old blocks after they were done.

The renegade hostel cop – the former warlord’s sidekick – was off duty last night. Residents say he is always off duty when there is a hit.

On 3 November it was reported that he held a meeting at Block 57 where he allegedly swore his commitment to continued violence until all the people on the hit list had been rubbed out. It was said he offered to supply thugs with the firearm of their choice as long as it was used on the – now rapidly dwindling – Block R community that has been under fire since March 2014. On 11 November he is understood to have held another meeting, this time at Block 48. Again sources reported he was actively recruiting, arming and inserting hitmen into an increasing number of Glebelands blocks. Already Blocks 42, 47, 48, 51, 52, 56, C2 and T are believed to be brimming with contract killers from eMagabheni, KwaMaphumulo, eMandeni, eMakhuzeni, Harding and Stanger.

And it seems there are other officers involved in the bloodshed. At least 12 other cops have been identified by the community as being less than squeaky clean with allegations against them ranging from recurring investigative failure, defeating the ends of justice and bribery, to torture and murder. It has been alleged that the hit on Frank Khuzwayo – shot fatally in the head on Saturday 7 November – was ordered by a cop and carried out by three well-known hostel killers, one of whom was identified by residents as, “The cop who lives here.” And the police still expect witnesses to come forward to report crime?!

Since the assassination of Mthintheni Mhlongo half an hour after mourners returned under heavy police escort from Khuzwayo’s funeral on Saturday 14 November, where Mhlongo laid the blame for his friend’s murder firmly at the feet of the ruling party, there appears to have been little investigative progress. Witnesses are believed to have been overlooked despite the movements of the killers’ vehicle having been closely monitored by residents as it moved from Ezimbuzini entrance to the tennis courts, past the community hall and Block P, back to the tennis courts, where it disgorged its deadly cargo, to kill again near Block K.

Just after midnight last night Block R was raided. Eleven vehicles – mostly from Umlazi SAPS – plus a fancy Landrover reportedly took part in the two-hour-long raid. It seems there were no arrests. They drove straight back to the community hall afterwards. It seems only Block R was subjected to the full might of the law last night. What a shame such overwhelming muscle was not around a few hours earlier when the two men were shot.

It is disingenuous and insulting for the SAPS, political leaders and local government officials to repeatedly describe the Glebelands violence as “warring factions” who need to be “brought together around the table for peace negotiations.” With an estimated 45 kills under their belts, a further four seemingly the result of internecine battles, collateral damage resulting in the death of one old man during a shootout between police and thugs – many of whom have been repeatedly identified to the police – and another three unaccounted for, it would seem certain suicide for anyone to even share so much as a thought, let alone a negotiation table, with these killers.

In addition, the evictions have, without exception, taken place at the old blocks – the late warlord’s home turf – and the hundreds of displaced, mostly women and children, have been forced to take refuge in the blocks surrounding Block R. It is understood that their rooms have been filled by those from outside of the hostel – hitmen, thugs, supporters of the local political structure – those apparently willing to pay big bucks for council accommodation, supposedly to house the poor.

How can this be described as “warring factions” when the odds are overwhelmingly in favour of the killers and their cop friends, and against those killed on a virtually daily basis, who are, in the majority, Block R residents who were in some way associated with former block committee structures, hail mostly from the Eastern Cape or KZN South Coast, and who raised their voices against the local ANC branch executive committee in 2013.

This is how it works in South Africa – it’s all about the money and one’s political affiliation determines one’s access to it.