The Unemployed People’s Movement (UPM) has taken up the cause of Glenmore activist, Velile Ben Mafani. After Mafani's latest court appearance on Wednesday for throwing a stone at a window of the High Court in Grahamstown, UPM Chairperson, Ayanda Kota, told Grocott’s Mail that the movement would help Mafani in finding a lawyer and paying for his legal costs.
The Unemployed People’s Movement (UPM) has taken up the cause of Glenmore activist, Velile Ben Mafani. After Mafani's latest court appearance on Wednesday for throwing a stone at a window of the High Court in Grahamstown, UPM Chairperson, Ayanda Kota, told Grocott’s Mail that the movement would help Mafani in finding a lawyer and paying for his legal costs.
He said this decision was taken because the movement had recognised Mafani's cause as one consistent with the values the UPM stands for. Mafani is accused of malicious damage to property after the stone-throwing incident earlier this year. He has two previous convictions for the same action.
In an interview Mafani told Grocott’s Mail that he planned to continue the repeated protest until the government paid attention to the grievances of the citizens of Glenmore – originally an apartheid resettlement camp. “What kind of democracy is this if the poor majority are overlooked?” he said.
The grievances include the demand that the people of Glenmore, who were forcefully removed by apartheid authorities from Coega, be given back their land and that around 140 graves of those who died within the first years after the removals be relocated from their current location alongside Groot River to a new grave site.
Mafani’s wife and children were among those who died. At Wednesday's court appearance, Magistrate M Kotze asked to be recused from the case, citing involvement in the previous cases as his reason. The case was postponed to give Mafani time to find a lawyer. He is scheduled to appear in court on 18 May.
