Glenmore activist Ben Mafani is back to his old ways once again, after managing to avoid breaking the windows of the High Court for a few years.
Glenmore activist Ben Mafani is back to his old ways once again, after managing to avoid breaking the windows of the High Court for a few years.
Mafani returned to the Grahamstown High Court yesterday armed with a rock wrapped in blue paper and his luggage. Mafani is known for repeatedly breaking the windows of the building by throwing bricks at them.
This time Mafani returned for a different reason. He claims the very system that ensured that he was forcefully removed from his home in Coega and dumped in Glenmore, has now dented his public image and damaged his credibility in society.
Mafani says getting employment and holding leadership roles in his community have been a problem because he has been told that the courts had found him to be mentally unstable.
“I wrote to Ngqushwa Municipality hoping to participate in the construction of a multi-million rand stadium in Glenmore, but I was told that I couldn't because the courts had found that I am mentally disturbed,” he said.
Ngqushwa Municipality spokesperson Ncumisa Cakwe hadn’t responded to emailed questions at the time of going to press.
Mafani has participated in civil society and political structures such as Agang SA and the Masifunde Education and Development Project Trust.
In 1979 police arrested Mafani at his home in Coega, near Port Elizabeth, and dumped him and his family at the Glenmore resettlement camp. His protests at the time were ignored and, since 1994, Mafani has been petitioning the new government in an effort to secure redress for the community.
The malicious damage to property charge stems from Mafani’s throwing a rock through a window of the High Court in Grahamstown. He did it for the first time in 2004. In 2007 he broke three windows at the court and was charged with malicious damage to property.
He was sentenced to a R2 000 fine or a year in prison, but the sentence was suspended for five years on condition he was not convicted of a similar offence in that five-year period. Seven months later in 2008, he did it again, was arrested and then released on a warning.
Mafani claims that people have taken advantage of him because they believe he is mentally disturbed. He refers to a theatre show that was featured in the main programme of the 2014 National Arts Festival.
Mafani says he believes that the reason he was never included in any way in the creation and the showing of the theatre show piece is that people regard him as a mentally disturbed person.
The story of the Ghost of Glenmore creatively explains the story of how Mafani suffered mentally and physically when he lost his wife and children during forced removals carried out by the apartheid government in 1979.
And how, as a result of his objection to the forced removals, Mafani and others were arrested, their houses demolished and their possessions loaded onto a truck and dumped in Glenmore.
It further explains why the creation of the 'apartheid village' in Glenmore led to a situation where the community has experienced many problems – then and now.
It also portrays the futility of his efforts to address the problems by writing letters to various organs of state.
The production brings home the issue of forced removals and the failure of the justice system to pronounce on it. Mafani believes that the original removal which created these problems is a legal issue on which the High Court should pronounce.
The show also raises awareness about the plight of the people of Glenmore, and their living conditions.
Grahamstown Police Spokesperson Captain Mali Govender confirmed that Mafani was arrested shortly before midday yesterday.
"He faces a charge of malicious damage to property," Govender said.
Govender said the 62-year-old man would appear in the magistrate's court in Grahamstown soon.
anele@grocotts.co.za
