MONDAY, 8.30AM
PUBLIC WORKS minister Jeff Radebe had to dodge gunfire between rival ANC groups when he arrived to address a meeting in Clermont township, outside Durban. Radebe was to speak alongside provincial housing MEC Peter Miller of the IFP, and to hand out title deeds to residents, at the invitation of the Clermont Civic Organisation.
A rival faction, which claimed to have booked the venue, opened fire with “a big volley of gunfire, not just one or two shots,” according to Miller. Miller himself drove out of Clermont at high speed, and says he refuses to return to the township, and will send the title deeds in the post.
Durban inner west mayor S’bu Gcwacela also drove out in haste, but Radebe, who had already left his car, was forced to ‘lie low’ in the township for some time before being escorted out by local ANC leaders.
The violent power struggle between rival ANC factions in the Clermont Civic Organisation has been going on for some time. This was Radebe’s second narrow escape over the weekend — on Friday, a helicopte ferrying him across the Drakensberg was forced to land on rocky terrain.