Police hold the line in Inanda as EFF and Mchunu events go ahead

Rival gatherings in Inanda, north of Durban, went ahead on Saturday under a heavy police deployment, a day after clashes between supporters of the Economic Freedom Fighters and supporters of Ngizwe Mchunu left several people assaulted and shots fired.

The EFF held its provincial manifesto launch in Inanda on Saturday, with party leader Julius Malema due to deliver the keynote address. Mchunu’s group was setting up a stage at Dube Village for a music event when, according to the EFF, its supporters confronted them.

Police moved in strength as the two events proceeded, and by Saturday afternoon the day’s programme was continuing under that deployment.

Two accounts of how it started

The EFF says Mchunu chose the same area deliberately to provoke the party, and that his event has no permit. Party spokesperson Mazwi Blose said the gathering was aimed at disrupting the launch and at blocking the route the party’s leader would use to reach the stadium.

“We cannot allow this gathering because it’s just a diversion of what they want to do,” Blose said. He said EFF supporters had come out “with our bodies to defend the organization”, and that they would prevent the event from going ahead.

Mchunu denies that his event was arranged to disrupt the launch. He said on Saturday morning that he had followed the correct process with councillor Mfeka, and that he had been told the stadium was available because the gathering was expected to be small and low risk, describing it as a prayer gathering.

He said both sides need to respect each other if the situation is not to escalate further, and insisted his event would go ahead.

Friday’s clashes, and what the law says

Friday’s confrontations came as the EFF mobilised support ahead of its rally. Shots were fired and several people were assaulted.

No group, movement or individual may enforce the law, or decide who may gather and who may not, because that authority belongs to the state. A self-declared deadline or a self-declared prohibition has no standing. Assault, public violence and the unlawful discharge of a firearm are crimes, and they are matters for the South African Police Service and the courts, not for crowds on either side of a street.

Where the police hold a line between two rival gatherings and both proceed without further injury, that is the job being done, and it is the reason Saturday’s events could take place at all.

What it costs the people who live there

Inanda residents spent Friday and Saturday between two mobilisations, on roads they use to get to work, to clinics and to school. Traders along the routes into Dube Village and the stadium lost a trading day to a confrontation that had nothing to do with them. A music event and a manifesto launch are both lawful reasons for people to gather. A street turned into a contest between two groups is not.

The provincial manifesto launch is the EFF’s formal presentation of its KwaZulu-Natal programme ahead of the 2026 local government elections, and it is the party’s own event to run. Mchunu’s gathering was billed by its organisers as a prayer meeting.

The police deployment remains in place in Inanda, and the SAPS has not said whether anyone has been arrested over Friday’s shootings or the assaults.

Source: SABC News (website), EFF and Ngizwe Mchunu supporters clash in Inanda