EFF lays charge in Inanda as maskandi show and rally book the same stadium

Shots were allegedly fired in Inanda on Friday, and by Friday afternoon a criminal case had been opened at the local police station over them.

EFF leaders and supporters gathered at Inanda police station to lay a charge against Ngizwe Mchunu, alleging that he and his bodyguards fired at party volunteers who were at the area preparing for the EFF’s provincial manifesto launch in Durban on Saturday, SABC News reported.

Mchunu denies the allegation. His account is that EFF supporters provoked him and his own supporters, SABC News reported.

The venue at the centre of it

The two sides are booked for the same Saturday and the same ground. The EFF’s manifesto launch is set for the JL Dube Stadium and is to be addressed by party leader Julius Malema. Mchunu has organised a cultural maskandi event at a venue booked for that rally.

The volunteers were at the venues to check them when the clashes broke out, SABC News reported.

That is the practical problem the case now sits on top of. Two gatherings, one stadium, one Saturday, and a police station in Inanda holding a docket opened by one side against the other.

What the law says about a gathering

A public gathering in South Africa is not a free-for-all over a booking. The Regulation of Gatherings Act sets out how a gathering is convened and notified, and it gives the municipality and the South African Police Service the authority to set conditions, to separate rival gatherings, and to prohibit one where the risk to public safety cannot be managed.

Firing a weapon at people is a separate matter entirely. Where a shot is fired at a person, the conduct falls under the Firearms Control Act and, depending on what the investigation establishes, the criminal law on attempted murder or assault. Whether that is what happened here is for the police investigation and, if it gets that far, a court. No person at a stadium gate, and no group, may take the enforcement of any dispute into their own hands. That authority belongs to the state.

A public quarrel with a history

Malema and Mchunu have clashed publicly before, and the EFF leader has previously taken legal action against Mchunu, SABC News reported.

That history is the reason the Inanda docket matters beyond the two men. Saturday’s events are not private arrangements. A provincial manifesto launch draws crowds, and a maskandi cultural event draws crowds, and both are being held in the same place on the same day.

What happens next

The case opened at Inanda police station now sits with the South African Police Service, which must investigate the allegation and decide what the evidence supports. The EFF’s provincial manifesto launch and Mchunu’s maskandi event remain scheduled for the same Saturday in Durban.

Any South African who has stood in a queue at a stadium gate, or tried to move through a Durban township on a Saturday afternoon when two large crowds are headed for the same road, knows what the next question is. It is whether the police and the municipality separate the two events before people arrive, or whether they manage the consequences after.

Source: SABC News (website), EFF opens case against Ngizwe Mchunu over alleged shooting