Ann Eveleth
THE KwaZulu-Natal offshoot of People Against Gangsterism and Drugs (Pagad) is a politically conservative shadow of its Cape-based mother body, with mainly National Party supporters rallying around calls to confront homosexuals at gay bars and “deal forcibly” with doctors performing abortions.
Led by a Muslim activist, a Hindu priest and a Christian pastor, the mainly Indian group has transcended the “Muslim” stereotype attributed to the controversial Cape movement, but has failed to win support from the province’s Muslim left wing.
About 200 Pagad supporters marched in Durban last week under banners echoing the recent NP election slogan, “Hang the killers, hang the rapists”. Pagad leaders say the other targets cited during the march — homosexuals, abortionists, gamblers and prostitutes — are those of a separate organisation, the National United People’s Organisation (Nupo). The leadership and many members of Pagad and Nupo are, however, one and the same.
“Drugs and gangsterism are the current issue,” says the chairman of both organisations, Rashid Suleman.
While Pagad’s Hindu leader, Vedic Pandit Randuth Nagaser, says he has doubts about Nupo’s alliance with Pagad, as he opposes violence, critics say Suleman’s greatest claim to fame is a recent debacle when he was caught carrying a gun in court during the emotive trial of two men charged with murdering Chatsworth schoolgirl Natasha Sookdeo.
Pagad’s Christian secretary, Pastor Eugene Perumal of Chatsworth’s Soul-Savers Outreach Mission, is more candid about the group’s objectives: “Pagad is limited to gangsterism and drugs. Nupo is also targeting shebeen lords, abortionists, homosexuals, prostitutes, and morality in general. We are one group, two organisations.”
While Perumal says the group wants to work with police and remain non-violent, he adds: “We are armed. The people are armed. If the need for violence arises, it will take place.”
He says the group intends protesting outside Durban’s gay bars to urge homosexuals “to repent”, and will demand that doctors and back-street abortionists stop performing abortions. “They are going to be seriously approached. If they refuse, we’re going to take them out by force.”
It is this approach, which comes from sections of the community which opposed the armed struggle of the liberation war, that has kept the Muslim left wing at bay.
The Muslim Youth Movement has reserved judgment on Pagad for the time being: “We strongly feel Pagad has the right to do something about evils in its community, but we don’t want people to take the law into their own hands,” says the movement’s secretary, Saydoon Sayed.
Organisation for Civic Rights leader and African National Congress member Iqbal Mohammed blames Suleman for the poor response to Pagad in Durban: “Pagad’s development in the Cape was grassroots, but Suleman has no standing in the community.”
Pagad’s strongest message of support comes from the conservative Muslim council, Natal Jamiat-ul-Ulema, which says it “shares the concerns” of Pagad and warns that if the government fails to act on crime, “more and more groups will emerge to do battle with the criminals”. It has stopped short, however, of supporting Pagad’s call to arms.