Killer of ABM leader receives 15 year jail sentence
President of Abahlali baseMjondolo also says members are being trained in security in face of assassinations and threats of violence
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A man has been handed a 15-year jail term for the murder of Abahlali baseMjondolo activist Ayanda Ngila. Khaya Ngubane was convicted last week for the murder of 30-year-old Ngila. Sentencing was handed down in the Durban Regional Court.
Ngila was the deputy chairperson of the AbM’s eKhenana commune branch in Cato Crest, Durban, at the time of his murder in March 2022. According to accounts, he was ambushed by four men in broad daylight while he was en route to fix a water pipe in the settlement in Durban. His murderer, Khaya Ngubane, is a 29 year old son of a pastor and former branch executive member of the ANC in Cato Crest, KwaZulu-Natal.
Abahlali baseMjondolo has had strained relations with the ruling African National Congress. It has accused the ANC of killing its members for agitating for better living conditions for shack dwellers around the country. The ANC, however, has said that it has never instructed its members to assassinate Abahlali members, and called for the movement to submit evidence to police.
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Abahlali baseMjondolo says that at least 24 of the leaders and activists have been assassinated since its formation in 2005, and community members, leaders, and activists live under the constant threat of violence. Abahlali has more than 115,000 members nationally.
Defence strategy for AbM
With fears the the upcoming national and provincial elections could lead to an escalation of violence against it, the movement said that it was developing a defence strategy to secure members and communities where it has a following. According to a report AbM is working with “specialist human rights defenders who survived repression in their own countries”.
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The report quoted AbM president, Sibusiso Zikode, who told News24 “Through assistance from our partners, who are human rights defenders with first-hand experience in other countries, we plan to train our members on security awareness and protocols.”
“Our members will be equipped with skills of early threat detection, as well as how to protect other members from hitmen. We are going to beef our communication skills and make it difficult for assassins to find and kill our members in informal settlements.”
Zikode, like some of the other national leaders of AbM, moves around with a permanent security detail.
He said AbM was “never going to stop voicing out views against the ANC, regardless of the repression that this may generate.”
