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Viewing cable 08DURBAN55, AT LAUNCH OF PEACE CHAIR, ZUMA TALKS OF VIOLENT CRIME

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Reference ID Created Released Classification Origin
08DURBAN55 2008-09-22 14:35 2011-08-24 01:00 UNCLASSIFIED Consulate Durban
R 221435Z SEP 08
FM AMCONSUL DURBAN
TO SECSTATE WASHDC 1332
AMEMBASSY PRETORIA 
INFO AMCONSUL JOHANNESBURG 
AMCONSUL CAPE TOWN 
AMCONSUL DURBAN
UNCLAS DURBAN 000055 
 
 
DEPT FOR DS/IP/AF, AF/EX ANDQF/S 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ASEC PGOV SF
SUBJECT: AT LAUNCH OF PEACE CHAIR, ZUMA TALKS OF VIOLENT CRIME 
 
1. ANC President Jacob Zuma acknowledged the challenge of 
violent crime and murder during his keynote address at the 
inauguration of the Gandhi-Luthuli Chair of Peace Studies at the 
University of KwaZulu Natal (UKZN) on September 18.  Zuma, who 
shared the stage with Indian Minister of State for External 
Affairs Anand Sharma--a long-time anti-apartheid ally of the 
ANC's--referred to the negative Indian press on crime against 
South Africans of Indian origin.  He assured Sharma and the 
audience (full of both Zuma's supporters as well as many 
prominent members of the Indian community) of the ANC's 
commitment to addressing crime.  Zuma singled out the "street 
committee" initiative that was launched in KwaZulu Natal as a 
successful example of ANC efforts to fight crime.  Comment: 
Zuma's remarks were likely made with South African Indian voters 
in mind--the Indian community is less politically predictable 
and can affect ANC provincial-level results in KwaZulu Natal. 
End comment. 
 
2. The recent negative reporting in the Indian press was 
prompted by the brutal murders of a well-known lawyer, Naren 
Sham, his wife, and 20-year old son (a law student at UKZN) at 
their Durban home in early September--the three were found bound 
and gagged, stabbed multiple times and with their throats slit. 
These killings were not the only murders of South African 
Indians in recent weeks, others include the murder of a Durban 
jeweller, Pat Pather, during a robbery at his business downtown 
in late August, and the robbery and strangling of a mother and 
daughter, Rajini and Damini Narainsamy, at their home in the 
KwaZulu Natal town of Newcastle in mid-September. 
 
3. The high profile inauguration and the enthusiastic reception 
of Zuma was covered extensively in local media.  Media reports 
noted the irony of Zuma's extolling the virtues of Mahatma 
Gandhi and Albert Luthuli and the principles of peace and 
non-violence while his own supporters from the ANC youth league 
continue their aggressive "kill for Zuma" posturing. 
 
DERDERIAN