SUPPORT ZANDILE MBARANE, CLASS-WAR PRISONER!
(Anti-Eviction Campaign, Western Cape)

 

Zandile Mbarane is an activist from Mandela Park, Khayelitsha. That community has, since 1999, been faced with massive eviction battles, orchestrated by both banks and government, working together in a partnership called Servcon. Since the early 1990s, in fact, Mandela Park has been a site of housing struggle, since here housing for poor people was financed by banks on a for-profit basis. The result of the evictions was that from 1999 onwards, whole streets started being cleared of people - particularly pensioners, the disabled and single parents, of which Zandile is one. From the end of 2001 onwards, the people of Mandela Park fought back, re-occupying houses and moving people back into Mandela Park from the areas they have been evicted to.

The success of this struggle led to a campaign of police harassment and repression, which peaked in the end of 2002 / start of 2003. Besides arrests of those deemed to be 'trespassing' in the houses they reoccupied, the state marked 'leaders' of the Mandela Park Anti-Eviction Campaign for harassment. These included Max Ntanyana, who was arrested in September 2002 and released with insane bail conditions that banned him from attending meetings, meeting with evicted persons (in other words, ordinary residents of Mandela Park), etc. Later that year Max was accused of breaking his bail conditions, and then had to operate 'underground', till one night in February 2003 he was snatched from outside his house by men in an unmarked car with darkened windows.

Now remember, this is a community with a long history of struggle, dating back to the days of Apartheid. These kind of tactics of 'disappearance' were used in the 1980s, and sometimes the activists 'disappeared' and were never seen again. So people responded - one of them Zandile. They who had pointed Max out, and detained that person. It turns out that this was an undercover police officer, and activists were then able to force the police to reveal where Max was.

The consequences for Zandile and three other activists were, however, severe: they were arrested in pre-dawn raids and charged with kidnapping. Their trial lasted two years, due to the difficulty in finding lawyers and other factors. For various complicated reasons, Zandile Mbarane has been the only person convicted and sentenced in this trial - she was sentenced to 10 months in jail in February 2005. She now needs our support. Her family is left supporting her two children, and every week they must pay for four taxis each way to go and visit her in jail.

So, ja, can you circulate this info around and maybe we can do some kind of collection for Zandile? Then, her postal address is:

Zandile Mbarane
Prisoner Number: 205587870
Pollsmoor Admissions Centre
Private Bag X4
Tokai
7966
South Africa