South Africa: Break-in at the Abahlali baseMjondolo Office

This morning we arrived at our office, which is in the Diakonia Centre in
central Durban, to find that there had been a break in last night. The hard
drives of two computers, an external hard drive and the keys to our safe
were taken. The cash in the safe was not touched and other easily saleable
items, like our microwave, television, cameras and mobile sound system were
not taken.

It was clear that the thieves were looking for information, not money. One
of the hard drives that they took is old and would have very little resale
value. However, the two hard drives, and the external hard drive that were
taken, do contain lots of information about our movement, including the
audited database of our membership which is a spreadsheet with every
members’ name, age, phone number, ID or passport number and other details,
details of all our branches, our correspondence with other progressive
organisations in South Africa and elsewhere in the world, and so on.

It is clear that this break in was the work of intelligence. We can’t be
certain about the motivation for the break in but our immediate suspicion
is that it is linked to our opposition to the gangster mayor of Durban, and
all the gangster councillors that support her.

We are currently waiting for the police to finish at the crime scene. Once
they have left we will be able to see if anything else was taken, such as
files, documents etc.

We repeat our call for the immediate removal of Zandile Gumede from her
position as mayor, and for the strongest possible protection for the
witnesses who will testify against her.

We will not be intimidated. We have nothing to hide. The struggle continues.