A Quick Update

Following up on the previous post, we have received news regarding the tenth court appearance on February 19. The new magistrate handling the case admitted openly that there is tremendous political pressure in the Kennedy 12 case.

A result of this pressure is that the five remaining in custody have been remanded further until 4 May 2010, which is a ridiculously long time to wait in detention. However, one piece of good news is that the seven who are on bail have been allowed to come and stay in Durban (they were prior to this restricted to Pietermaritzburg). Their stringent bail conditions have, however, not been loosened.

In a statement by the Diakonia Council of Churches, which held a prayer service outside the court during the hearing, clergymen evinced their anger at the situation of injustice.

Revd Roger Scholtz said: "How is it possible that in this land, this land that has tasted the sweetness of captives being set free after the bitterness of unjust bondage for so long, how is it possible that in this land we find justice being denied in a seemingly wilful and orchestrated way?"

He asked how it is possible that the liberators of yesteryear have become today’s oppressors, saying, "How can it be, that those who are in power, who themselves knew what it was like for the voices of the poor and powerless to be silenced, how can it be that they now seek to silence those very voices that are crying out in lament from under the crippling burden of poverty that they are bearing alone?"

Immediately after the magistrate’s admission and decision, Barry Wood OMI, the Catholic Bishop of Durban, burst with outrage at the way the Kennedy 13 have been persecuted by the state since 26 September 2009: “This calculated act of the unprovoked and unjustified harassment and persecution of Abahlali by the authorities who have themselves failed to deliver on their electoral promises, this sadism of the highest order shows to what despicable moral levels our leaders have sunk. This must be condemned in the strongest possible terms by all people of conscience”.

Friends, we must continue our support for Abahlali together with all those in South Africa and beyond. We must not allow injustice to go unchallenged.