A mob of men armed with bush knives, guns and bottles entered the Kennedy Road informal settlement searching for leaders of the shackdwellers movement Abahlali baseMjondolo (AbM).
The attack was immediately condemned by academics and church leaders, and Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International later expressed concerns.
The shackdwellers movement Abahlali baseMjondolo (AbM) had been founded at Kennedy Road and campaigned on issues such as better sanitation, which brought it into conflict with the ruling African National Congress (ANC).
[3][2] The men woke residents up by banging on their doors and made threats whilst searching for AbM leaders such as Lindela Figlan and S'bu Zikode.
[5] Later, shacks belonging to members of the Kennedy Road Development Committee (KRDC) were demolished and others were looted by men shouting "Down with Abahlali!
[7] On Monday 28 September, a letter from South African academics was published which condemned the attack and raised concerns that local police and ANC members had colluded with the mob.
Signatories included the academics John Dugard, Steven Friedman, Marie Huchzermeyer, Martin Legassick, Michael Neocosmos and Peter Vale.
[4] The KwaZulu-Natal Department of Safety and Security held meetings at Kennedy Road for stakeholders which were condemned as unrepresentative by church leaders, AbM and the Mail & Guardian, the latter describing them as "a sham" and an "exercise in speaking with forked tongues".
[19] Amnesty noted that the court had found that "police had directed some witnesses to point out members of Abahlali-linked organizations at the identification parade"[20] and that the people whose shacks had been demolished had been unable to return to Kennedy Road.
The attack on Kennedy Road posed a challenge to the ability of Abahlali baseMjondolo to organise, since its leaders were forced to go underground and it was unable to hold public meetings for several months, but the group survived.