[Debate] Ayanda Kota

Fri Jan 13 08:35:53 GMT 2012

Come off it Berend! Are you being deliberately naive? The woman is on her own admission a 'marxist' activist with 35 years exerience. This should normally imply some sort of understanding of the way things work in bourgeois society. She knows Kota and his difficult relationship to the local cops. But she nevertheless lays a charge of theft because a borrowed book is allegedly not returned -  hardly an unknown occurrence at a university and almost definitely overkill - unless of course he broke in to steal it or physically grabbed it off her person. What would an avowed Marxist expect to happen under such circumstances? 

From: okhela at iafrica.com
Sent:2012-01-13 10:04:33
To: debate-list at fahamu.org
Cc: 
Subject: Re: [Debate] Ayanda Kota
Debatable. Let us establish the facts before going loose lipped scandalizing people. Who knows, this lend / borrow deal was done in good faith with a special promise to return. One cannot automatically assume that Ayanda had a right to not return. I am also dead certain that the said person did not prefigure the actions of the police. She wanted her book back which may have been of special value to her. Ayanda was apparently simply refusing to return it. So she reported him for theft. I have full sympathy and support for Ayanda but find this jumping of the gun to “name and shame” sanctimonious, arrogant and altogether uncalled for. Maybe when Ayanda is released he will explain . . . . . . but the thing of police brutality is absolutely atrocious!!!     From:David EverattSent: Friday, January 13, 2012 9:46 AMTo:Debate is a listserve that attempts to promote information and analyses ofinterest to the independent left in South and Southern AfricaSubject: Re: [Debate] Ayanda Kota If I did that (back in the day at Rhodes or now at Wits &UJ) I’d have a permanent space in the queue at the police station! Redistribution of lecturers’ books is part of the job of being a student, isn’t it? Certainly was when I was a student, and seems still to be true.

From: "wlmailhtml:grinker at mweb.co.za" wlmailhtml:grinker at mweb.co.za>
Reply-To: Debate is a listserve that attempts to promote information and analyses of interest to the independent left in South and Southern Africa wlmailhtml:debate-list at fahamu.org>
Date: Fri, 13 Jan 2012 07:05:08 -0000
To: Benjamin Fogel wlmailhtml:gonzostig at gmail.com>, wlmailhtml:debate-list at fahamu.org>
Subject: Re: [Debate] Ayanda Kota

Is it normal for Rhodes lecturers to report non-return of borrowed books to the cops? Or is there more to this story?

From: wlmailhtml:gonzostig at gmail.com
Sent:2012-01-13 08:38:47
To: wlmailhtml:debate-list at fahamu.org
Cc: 
Subject: Re: [Debate] Ayanda Kota
The academic is Claudia Martinez-Mullen from the Rhodes sociology department.

On Thu, Jan 12, 2012 at 10:40 PM, Anna Majavu wlmailhtml:annamajavu at gmail.com> wrote:
Who is the academic? Name and shame please.

On Fri, Jan 13, 2012 at 4:36 AM, Benjamin Fogel wlmailhtml:gonzostig at gmail.com> wrote:
> if you want to call the police here is the Grahamstown police station's
> number  046 603 9100
>
> On Thu, Jan 12, 2012 at 5:12 PM, wlmailhtml:grinker at mweb.co.za> wrote:
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> 12 January 2011
>> Unemployed People's Movement Press Statement
>>
>> Ayanda Kota Assaulted in the Grahamstown Police Station - Under Arrest
>>
>> About 40 minutes ago Ayanda Kota was seriously assaulted by a group of
>> police officers in the Grahamstown police station. He was dragged, bleeding
>> from at least two wounds, and with his clothes torn from his body, to the
>> holding cells.
>>
>> For some months he has been under open police surveillance and at times
>> has been threatened and insulted by the police. The police have been
>> watching his mother's house and have searched it looking for him. Their
>> behaviour has been very rude, threatening and aggressive.
>>
>> Today Ayanda was summoned to the police station. He popped out of a
>> meeting organised by Masifunde and the Rural People's Movement with his six
>> month old son and a comrade. He was called to the police station because a
>> lecturer at Rhodes, who has publicly engaged in strange and aggressive
>> behaviour on a number of occasions, laid a charge of theft against Ayanda
>> after he misplaced a book that she had leant him. Ayanda did not steal the
>> book - he mislaid it. This is something that happens all the time to people
>> that share books. Perhaps another comrade picked it up and forget to return
>> it. Perhaps it was left in a taxi. These things happen. Ayanda has made it
>> quite clear that he is willing to replace the book.
>>
>> As soon as Ayanda met Constable Zulu, the officer that had summoned him to
>> the station, Constable Zulu said that he was taking him straight to the
>> cells. Ayanda said that he wanted to show the officer text messages on his
>> cellphone to the lecturer at Rhodes offering to replace the book but the
>> officer insisted that Ayanda was going straight to the cells. Ayanda then
>> asked to be able to take his son home first. At that point Constable Zulu
>> lunged at Ayanda very aggressively. Ayanda raised his arm in an instinctive
>> gesture of defence following which Zulu began to assault him with blows to
>> the head. Three or four other police offices then joined the assault. Ayanda
>> was on the floor for most of the duration of the assault which went on for
>> some minutes. This happened in the presence of his six year old son who of
>> course was traumatised.
>>
>> The assault was brutal, entirely unnecessary and accompanied by, in
>> Constable Zulu's case, an obvious sadistic delight. A police secretary who
>> witnessed it all burst into tears.One of the police officers made a
>> sarcastic remark about Ayanda being the newsmaker of the year in the local
>> paper. This was plainly no ordinary arrest.
>>
>> This is a bogus charge that most certainly does not justify arrest. There
>> was nothing to justify the assault. This is a simple attempt on the part of
>> the police to misuse a ridiculous charge laid by someone well known for
>> strange and erratic behaviour in order to intimidate an activist and the
>> movement that he represents.
>>
>> The police are not here to protect society. They are here to protect the
>> ruling party from popular dissent. This is not an isolated incident. Poor
>> people's movements have been constantly subject to this sort of behaviour at
>> the hands of the police for many years now.
>>
>> UPM will try to visit Ayanda in the holding cells and will mobilise to get
>> him medical attention tonight and to support him in court tomorrow. The
>> movement is currently looking for a lawyer. Of course civil and criminal
>> charges will be laid against Constable Zulu and all the other police
>> officers who joined this assault.
>>
>> For more information please contact Xola Mali on 072 299 5253.
>>
>>
>>
>>
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