[Abahlali] Global Call-In and Solidarity Actions for Evicted KwaMashu Community

For Immediate Release
7January 2012

Contact
OccupyCOP17@gmail.com
Kevin Buckland +33 6 88 44 79 70
Jabulile Mdlalose (+27) 0745425939
Nkyaniso Madlala (+27) 0843271176 or 0762133908

GLOBAL SOLIDARITY ACTIONS FOR KWAMASHU COMMUNITY DISPLACED BY COP17
Activists from Around the World Call Councillor Lucky Mdlalose of KwaMashu

London - Councilor Lucky Mdlalose's of KwaMashu's phone was ringing non-stop on
Friday as activists from all over the world phoned in as part of a Global Day
of Action to support a community from KwaMashu that had been evicted because of
the COP17 Climate Conference in November. This Global Action, with people
calling in from the United States, India, Belgium, the UK and others, also
included a protest in London at the South African Embassy.

“I called because no one should have their home stolen from them, especially
not by their own Government” reported Anna Collins of the UK.

Activists from “Occupy COP17”, who came to Durban for the COP17 conference,
had developed a close relationship with the community. “In our General
Assembly, someone told us of how a community had been illegally evicted because
of the COP17, so we called them.” said Kevin Buckland from the International
NGO 350.org, “two days later, some of us from Occupy COP17 went to meet with
them. As soon as we arrived we were moved to tears by hearing about the
injustice that had occurred. They told us their story on the very place where
there houses had stood just weeks before. Now all that was left were piles of
broken roofing and scattered objects."

On the last day of the COP17 Climate Change Conference, community members
attended a “Vigil For Climate Justice” just outside the ICC Center where
the Climate Negotiations were being held. At the vigil, they shared their story
and young members from the community performed a play reenacting the illegal
eviction. Many of the people who witnessed the performance were among those to
call-in on Friday.  Community member Jabulilie Mdlalose said “They destroyed
our houses. They destroy our lives. They took our food. They took out clothes.
They took everything from us. And they said we are messing up the place because
of the COP17. Today we don't have a shelter. ”

“Now that we have met them and heard their story,” said Buckland “we
cannot let them suffer alone, and we will not abandon. Councillor Lucky
Mdlalose: people all over the world will be watching how you act on this. We
will stand by our friends from KwaMashu until justice is served.”

This community of 31 families had originally been evicted in 2007 to build a
road for the World Cup. They were given no alternative housing and eventually
built homes in KwaMashu, District 7. On November 23rd the community, consisting
mostly of women and children, were illegally evicted without an eviction order
and without an assessment required by the PIE act of 1998.

Shortly after the illegal eviction the community appealed to local authorities
to let them sleep in a public hall. They were barred from entering the hall,
and so, having nowhere else to go, they returned to the site where there homes
had been and huddled under plastic sheets. In the torrential rainstorm that
night, one man, Mwempi Caka, caught a chill and died soon after. The community
has until now received no attention from local authorities despite attempts to
deliver legal documents and repeated requests for meetings.

Anna Collins, an organizer from OccupyLondon who was in Durban for the Climate
Negotiations and helped to organize the Action at the South African Embassy
said, "We decided to organize this solidarity action at the South African
Embassy because one death is already too much. Many of these community members
are grandmothers and small children, they should not have to beg to sleep on
neighbors floors any longer. One grandmother is very sick, and a young girl
will be having a heart operation this month. They need their homes back, they
need immediate action!”

The feeling of betrayl is strong among the community, many of whom had recently
voted for Councillor Lucky Mdlalose and are hoping he will follow through on
his promises to bring improved living conditions to KwaMashu. "The municipality
said we were messing up the community and they didn't want the people coming to
Durban for the United Nations conference to see us," said Jabulile Mdlalose.
"They are ashamed of us. We have nowhere to go in our own country. The worst
part is that the order to destroy our community came from a councilman who had
come campaigning in our neighbourhoods just months before, promising that he
would get us running water and electricity if we voted for him. We voted for
him expecting something better and we got this."

“We stand in solidarity with OccupyKwaMashu because this is not just the
story of 31 families, but the story of a government who is not looking out for
its own people. Our constitution was created to protect our people from
injutices such as this. If our government violently evicts its own civilians
from public land without offering them an alternative is not the South Africa
that Nelson Mandela and others worked so hard to create,” reported Nkyaniso
Madlala of Durban. 

For more information please visit www.occupycop17.org

PHOTO: Activists Gather in front of the South African Embassy in London with
images of some of the community members from KwaMashu Township who were evicted
because of the COP17 conference. Photo by Anna Collins
------------
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[Abahlali] Occupy Durban!

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27 November 2011
Abahlali baseMjondolo Press Statement

Occupy Durban!
Occupations Currently Underway in Hillary, KwaMashu and Pinetown

We are human beings, not dogs, and every human being has a right to a decent
home and a right, if they choose, to a place in the city. Economic, political
and legal systems that deny these rights are a threat to our humanity and must
be resisted. There is enough money and space in this world for every person to
have a decent home. The problem is that the money and space are being held by
the few to exclude the many. If the few continue to exclude the many then it is
our responsibility to ourselves, our families and our communities to resist
this oppression.

In South Africa the state uses violent demolitions and evictions to prevent
poor people from developing land and building informal homes on our own. The
economic system prevents those without money from buying or renting formal
homes. The state promises formal houses to the poor but the number of people
without houses is growing, most of the houses built by the state are unfit for
human beings and in the rural peripheries of the cities. For some people the
promise of a house has turned into the nightmare of forced removal to a transit
camp.

We are in the middle of the Sixteen Days of Activism to end violence against
women and children. Many conferences are being held. There are many discussions
on television. Yet who will stand with the poor, with poor women and their
children, when the state or private landowners send out the police or security
guards to evict them, demolish their homes and steal their building materials?
We do not see or hear from all these NGOs that are talking about the rights of
women and children when the state and private landowners use violence to deny
poor women and their children the right to a home.

As a movement we are struggling to build a society in which there is an
economic system where human beings come before profit and a political system in
which leaders take direction from below. We are struggling to build a society
in which there will be a fair distribution of land and decent housing for all.
But we are alive now, our children are growing now. We are living in the rain
and with shack fires now. Therefore it is clear that we also have to take
direct action to struggle for what land and housing we can get right now even
as we continue the long struggle for a more democratic and just world.

Occupy Hillary

Four weeks ago 77 people were evicted from the Valley View flats in Hillary.
These flats are owned by SOHCO which is a social housing company. Social
housing was set up to cover those who don't qualify for RDP houses but are too
poor to qualify for bonds. It is called a 'public private partnership'. But the
private side of this arrangement has taken over the public side. Tenants are
being exploited by paying rentals that will, over their lives, be worth much
more than the value of the flats and those that are falling behind are being
evicted. They remain unable to get RDP houses and unable to get housing through
the market and are therefore being excluded from access to housing. Social
housing is therefore failing and it will continue to fail until the alliance
between the government and private investors looking to make private profit is
abandoned and replaced with an alliance between the government and
co-operatives of people needing housing.

Last night 50 of the evicted people returned to the flats to occupy them. The
police succeeded in forcing them out again. Tonight they have returned to
reoccupy the flats. If they are evicted again they will return tomorrow night.

Contact Details for the Hillary Occupation:

S'fiso: 079 818 1987
Nomfundo: 082 541 0855

Occupy KwaMashu

The KwaMashu comrades were first evicted from eBhandeni, which was in Siyanda
in KwaMashu in 2009. They were evicted by Nandi Mandela as a road was being
built. It was said that the road was important for the 2010 World Cup and that
the poor people would have to make way. They were never given alternative
accommodation as demanded by the law and were just left homeless.

They have tried several times to engage with the councilor, Mr Lucky Mdlalose
who has neglected them. After a long time of failing to get any help from the
councilor they decided to occupy the vacant land which is next to the school
called Thobile Primary School. On Wednesday last week the shacks that they had
built on the land were demolished by people from the Municipality. The cars
that there were driving had these number plates: NDM 6902, NDM 6903 and NDM
6999. The comrades were brave and they rebuilt their shacks the next day.

On Friday the municipality came with cars that had these number plates: NDM
6963 and NDM 6903. They demolished the shacks again and this time they also
stole the people's building material. The community went to the police station
to open a case of theft. The police refused to open a case but one police
officer did call the councilor who responded by saying that as there is COP 17
coming the councilors have been given a mandate to make sure that no one is
dirtying the community and that they must take care of the animals and nature.
Later there was a debate on Vibe FM between the councilor and Bandile Mdlalose,
the AbM Secretary General. During that debate the councilor said that he would
make arrangements for alternative accommodation but he has not contacted them.
Around thirty people have now decided that on Monday morning they are going to
occupy the KwaMashu community hall with their children as there were all made
homeless by Nandi Mandela and then again by the Municipality and the Councilor
is doing nothing to protect them. The occupation will start at around 7 a.m.
Tomorrow.

Contact details for the KwaMashu Occupation:

Jabulile : 074 542 5939
Mama Mdlalose 073 501 4200

Occupy Pinetown

The eMmaus land occupation, in Pinetown, was founded in September 2010. These
people had previously been evicted by the Mahogany Ridge 2 Property Owners'
Association and before that by the Roman Catholic Church after it sold its land
to industry. They had been left homeless after these evictions and needed a
place to stay. Since then they have suffered more demolition and theft of their
building material. The Mahogany Ridge 2 Property Owners' Association has also
put an electric fence around the occupation which is very dangerous for
children. The land owners are currently trying to get the people evicted
through the courts. AbM is fighting the case in the courts and on the 19th of
October 2011 the movement organised a mass march on the landlords in defense of
the land occupation.

Contact details for the Pinetown Occupation:

Khanyi Dlamuka, eMmaus AbM Coordinator: 071 218 3007

It is clear that to many people in government, and to many rich people, the
poor remain dirt, something to swept out of the cities. If housing is to be
given to us it is housing that is unfit for human beings and will hide us away
in rural human dumping grounds. In Durban our attempts to organise and struggle
for land and housing have been met with serious and violent repression from the
state and the ruling party. Neither the economic system nor the political
system are working for the poor and therefore we will continue to struggle for
justice. We invite all the comrades who are in Durban for the COP 17 meeting to
come and show their solidarity for the occupations in Hillary, KwaMashu and
eMmaus and for our struggle for the right to organise for land and housing and
to be able to engage the state meaningfully.

For further comment contact Abahlali baseMjondolo at: 031 304 6420.
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Labels: #Occupy, #OWS, Activism, Africa, south africa

[Abahlali] AbM Press Conference to Announce Mass Protest - 22 November, 10:00 a.m.

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Abahlali baseMjondolo Press Statement

Tuesday, 22 November 2011


Abahlali baseMjondolo Youth League to March to Demand the Immediate Removal of
Nigel Gumede from Office

AbM Youth League to take to the streets and demand the removal of Nigel Gumede
as Chairperson of the Housing Portfolio Committee and Infrastructure for
eThekwini Municipality


WHAT: On Thursday, 24 November 2011, Abahlali baseMjondolo's Youth League will
march to demand the immediate removal of Nigel Gumede as Chairperson of the
Housing Portfolio Committee and Infrastructure for the eThekwini Municipality.
This demand comes in the wake of threatening statements that have come from
Gumede toward Abahlali baseMjondolo Chairperson, S'bu Zikode, and other members
of Abahlali over the last two years. These statements by Gumede, especially in
the context of the repression that AbM has faced, show that Gumede is a serious
threat to democracy in Durban. Gumede's intimidation undermine our confidence
in the official goodwill that will be needed to make the current negotiations
with the Mayor's office a success.

Gumede has also been grossly ineffective in his role and has discounted the
needs of the poor time and time again during this tenure. We are living in life
threatening conditions year after and year refuse to keep waiting indefinitely
for decent housing and services.

Nigel Gumede is a direct threat to our ability to address and to overcome the
life threatening and undignified conditions in which we have been forced to
live for too long. It is these conditions that mean that we are the people in
the City who are most at risk of climate change. He must resign now!


WHEN & WHERE:

· Press Conference: on 22 November 2011, 10am at the Abahlali
baseMjondolo office, Salisbury Centre, 347-351 Dr Pixley kaSeme aka West
Street. Durban

· Protest: on 24 November 2011, the march starts at Botha Park at 8am



WHO: The Youth League of Abahlali baseMjondolo has put out the call to march to
AbM members in over 20 shack settlements around the Durban area. They have also
rallied allies who represent sister communities of taxi workers, street
traders, hostel dwellers and others. We will fill the streets of Durban with a
clear and firm demand for Nigel Gumede to go.



CONTACT: AbM Office: 031 304 6420 (071 424 2815)

Mazwi Nzimande : 074 222 8601------------
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http://www.khayelitshastruggles.com/
http://www.antieviction.org.za

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Symphony Way Pavement Dwellers Statement

Symphony Way Pavement Dwellers Statement
9 November 2011

Funds raised through our community's efforts to sell our book, No Land! No House! No Vote! Voices from Symphony Way, is making it possible for Doreen Lewis to bury her son who died tragically days ago.

Last week, one of our own youth, 24 year old Leroy Van Wyk, passed away. He was taken to the local Delft Clinic with a severe 'headache'. His symptoms were scoffed at and he was sent away with some pain tablets. (As poor people, Delft Clinic often refuses to take our health seriously and usually sends us away with Panado or Paracetamol even though we have much more serious illnesses).

A few days later, Leroy was rushed back to the Clinic where he passed away. We still do not know what is the real cause of death.

As often happens in our communities, family members who are unemployed often are unable to pay the exorbitant costs of funerals. Doreen Lewis, an unemployed single mother who has been very active in our struggle from day one, barely has a cent in her name.

However, after convening a mass meeting of the community, we unanimously voted to use the profit we as authors have made so far from Cape Town sales of our anthology, to pay for the funeral of Leroy. To us, this collective need was so much more important than our individual needs. We are pretty certain that if it were not for this book, we would not have been able to bury our son.

We feel that this gesture indicates our resolve as a community to stay united in our fight for housing and dignity for our community and for the whole of Blikkiesdorp.

The funeral will be on Friday the 11th of November 2011 at 9am. The body will be at Doreen's home in Blikkiesdorp (#16 in M-Block). We will be at the church at 10am and the graveyard at 11am .

For more information contact:

Jerome @ 0731438886
Willy @ 0731443619

Labels: Africa, south africa

Symphony Way Pavement Dwellers Statement

Symphony Way Pavement Dwellers Statement
9 November 2011

Funds raised through our community's efforts to sell our book, No Land! No House! No Vote! Voices from Symphony Way, is making it possible for Doreen Lewis to bury her son who died tragically days ago.

Last week, one of our own youth, 24 year old Leroy Van Wyk, passed away. He was taken to the local Delft Clinic with a severe 'headache'. His symptoms were scoffed at and he was sent away with some pain tablets. (As poor people, Delft Clinic often refuses to take our health seriously and usually sends us away with Panado or Paracetamol even though we have much more serious illnesses).

A few days later, Leroy was rushed back to the Clinic where he passed away. We still do not know what is the real cause of death.

As often happens in our communities, family members who are unemployed often are unable to pay the exorbitant costs of funerals. Doreen Lewis, an unemployed single mother who has been very active in our struggle from day one, barely has a cent in her name.

However, after convening a mass meeting of the community, we unanimously voted to use the profit we as authors have made so far from Cape Town sales of our anthology, to pay for the funeral of Leroy. To us, this collective need was so much more important than our individual needs. We are pretty certain that if it were not for this book, we would not have been able to bury our son.

We feel that this gesture indicates our resolve as a community to stay united in our fight for housing and dignity for our community and for the whole of Blikkiesdorp.

The funeral will be on Friday the 11th of November 2011 at 9am. The body will be at Doreen's home in Blikkiesdorp (#16 in M-Block). We will be at the church at 10am and the graveyard at 11am .

For more information contact:

Jerome @ 0731438886
Willy @ 0731443619

Labels: Africa, south africa

Statement on Threats Made to S'bu Zikode

http://www.abahlali.org - Sekwanele! - http://antieviction.org.za/


Statement on Threats Made to S'bu Zikode

When we heard that eThekweni Mayor, James Nxumalo, agreed to meet with a
delegation from the shackdwellers movement, Abahlali baseMjondolo (AbM),
we were hopeful that a new page was being turned. Perhaps now there can
be meaningful engagement between the organised poor and the City of Durban.

But if there is to be real progress, then the actions of Nigel Gumede
(Chairperson of the Housing and Infrastructure Portfolio Committee) in that
meeting must be condemned. Gumede made angry and violent threats against S'bu
Zikode, AbM Chairperson. We must insist that for genuine partnership to be
built, it must be on the basis of respect for all people. The fragile prospects
of new beginnings in Durban cannot be undermined by Gumede's ongoing hostility
and disrespect. This sort of behaviour cannot be allowed to impede the full
flowering of our democracy.

Issued by: Bishop Rubin Phillip,
Bishop of the Diocese of Natal, Anglican Church of Southern Africa.
Date: 18 October 2011

Endorsed by: Church Land Programme with unanimous support from all participants
at the Diakonia Council of Churches reflection day on prophetic ministry, being
held today at Marianhill, KZN.
------------
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http://www.khayelitshastruggles.com/
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Labels: Africa, south africa

Statement on Threats Made to S'bu Zikode

http://www.abahlali.org - Sekwanele! - http://antieviction.org.za/


Statement on Threats Made to S'bu Zikode

When we heard that eThekweni Mayor, James Nxumalo, agreed to meet with a
delegation from the shackdwellers movement, Abahlali baseMjondolo (AbM),
we were hopeful that a new page was being turned. Perhaps now there can
be meaningful engagement between the organised poor and the City of Durban.

But if there is to be real progress, then the actions of Nigel Gumede
(Chairperson of the Housing and Infrastructure Portfolio Committee) in that
meeting must be condemned. Gumede made angry and violent threats against S'bu
Zikode, AbM Chairperson. We must insist that for genuine partnership to be
built, it must be on the basis of respect for all people. The fragile prospects
of new beginnings in Durban cannot be undermined by Gumede's ongoing hostility
and disrespect. This sort of behaviour cannot be allowed to impede the full
flowering of our democracy.

Issued by: Bishop Rubin Phillip,
Bishop of the Diocese of Natal, Anglican Church of Southern Africa.
Date: 18 October 2011

Endorsed by: Church Land Programme with unanimous support from all participants
at the Diakonia Council of Churches reflection day on prophetic ministry, being
held today at Marianhill, KZN.
------------
http://www.abahlali.org
http://www.khayelitshastruggles.com/
http://www.antieviction.org.za 

Labels: Africa, south africa

Abahlali baseMjondolo take to the Streets, demand end to vicious evictions in eMmause

http://www.abahlali.org - Sekwanele! - http://antieviction.org.za/


Abahlali baseMjondolo Press Statement
Wednesday, 19 October 2011

Abahlali baseMjondolo take to the Streets, demand end to vicious evictions in
eMmause

South Africa’s largest social movement calls for respect, and human right to
decent housing and safety

Pinetown, KwaZulu-Natal

This morning, Abahlali baseMjondolo(AbM) members and allies will be joining a
march from Shepstone Road to Tollage Road to call for an end to all demolitions
and evictions in the eMmause community. Since late 2010, hundreds of people
have had their shacks destroyed by the landlord, Mahogany Ridge 2 Property
Owners Association. Hundreds more have been brutally evicted. These actions by
the landlord present a gross violation of people’s right to housing and
safety. Today we are marching for land and housing in the cities.

We have a right to cities, a right which we are prepared to live for or die
for. AbM is in over 64 communities nation wide and has over 10,000 active
members.

The marchers will acting peacefully to bring attention to the desperately
broken system of democracy that has developed since the end of apartheid. It is
in reality a system that has, to put it simply, replaced one set of white
elites with another set of black elites, all with little interest in real
democracy. Democracy for the poor has meant being moved at the will of the
rich, living in shacks and waiting decades for permanent housing. Democracy for
the poor in this country has also meant being continually marginalized from
conversations and tables where decisions are being made about our lives and the
lives of our children and families. We are now in the middle of the census. But
we are tired of having government officials coming to count us, talk to us and
make empty promises. They want us to stop building shacks because they do not
want us to help ourselves while they themselves are living in decent places.

Abahlali is calling for simple things: justice, housing as a human right, and
the chance to be full participants in our lives without being threatened or
attacked by political officials. Abahlali's aims are peaceful but have been met
with disdain and brutality. Abahlali is calling for an end to the
politically-motivated repression and fear mongering which we have been forced
to endure at the hands of the government and its thugs.

The protest is also meant to highlight a recent series of disrespectful and
dangerous interactions Abahlali has had with government officials. Indeed,
despite more than six years of rallies, workshops, and community mobilization,
Abahlali had until last week been repeatedly denied its democratic right to
meet with and discuss its demands with elected officials.

Marchers will make their way to the offices of Mahogany Ridge 2 Property Owners
Association where they will present a list of demands which include, that a
hazardous electrical fence that was erected by the landlord be immediately
removed, and that the land should rightly be given back to the relevant South
Africans from whose grandparents it was stolen. This march marks the beginning
of a series of protests that will culminate on December 3rd, the global day of
action against climate change. We will claim the space as the masses on
December 3rd. We are calling for justice, equality, human dignity. We call for
the world not to stand aside and look on as we are being oppressed.

For more information please contact:

Muzi Mkhize Protest March Convener: 083 301 9856
Khanyi Dlamuka eMmaus Coordinator: 071 218 3007
AbM Office: 031 304 6420 (071 424 2815)

Memorandum of Demands to Mr. Glen Lion Demsy, Mahogony Ridge 2 Property Owners
Association, Wednesday, 19 October 2011

We, the residents, men and women of Abahlali baseMjondolo Movement SA in
eMmaus, in Pinetown, in KwaZulu-Natal are democrats committed to the
flourishing of this country. We speak for ourselves and direct our own
struggle. We have been mobilized by our own suffering and our hope for a better
future. It is time to take seriously the fact that the distribution of land is
a serious problem in our country and that land was stolen from our ancestors
and that this has impoverished us. It is also time to take seriously the fact
that land continues to be taken from the poor in the name of development and
the market and that this continues to impoverish us.

For too long the commercial value of land here in eMmause, in nearby Motala
Heights and in many other areas has been put before its social value. We demand
that social value of land come before its commercial value.

For too long we have been living under constant threats of eviction in our own
land. We demand an immediate and permanent end to all evictions. We demand land
security.

For too long the right to cities has been denied to the shack dwellers and the
poor in this country. We demand the right to live in the cities.

For too long the provision of basic services has been denied to us and the
poor. We demand the provision of all basic services such as water and
sanitation, electricity, road access, refuse collection etc to us.

For too long we have been fenced in the shacks and transit camps. We demand Mr.
Demsey immediately remove the electric fence that has been installed on this
land. We also demand the immediate removal of security guards from our
community.

For too long the state and the business sector have united against the poor. We
demand that the eThekwini municipality to stop sending Mr. Mdletshe to threaten
us with eviction. We demand that Mdletshe stop himself from being used as the
puppet of the eThekwini municipality and that he decide to work with the people
of this city.

For too long our struggle has been redirected to courts because it is too
expensive for us to struggle there. We demand that that you withdraw your court
proceedings and negotiate a way forward with us.

If we are given no option to negotiate we are prepared to fight for this land
and against all evictions and harassment in courts and in streets.

Land is not for sale in Africa. We demand that you return your money to those
who sold this land to you and bring our land back.

Just as people around the city, the country and world are uniting in support of
our struggle we express our support for our comrades elsewhere.

If this memorandum is received without conscious Abahlali baseMjondolo Movement
SA will reconsider another plan B… We will not give up the struggle for this
land or for the right of all people to live in peace and safety.------------
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Labels: Africa, homeless-activism, south africa

Celebration of the 6th Anniversary of Abahlali baseMjondolo Movement S.A.

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25 August 2011

Abahlali baseMjondolo Press Statement



Celebration of the 6th Anniversary of Abahlali baseMjondolo Movement S.A.



“What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who

can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us

all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who

will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who

justifies. Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who

died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and

is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?

Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or

sword? As it is written: “For your sake we face death all day long; we are

considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” Romans 8: 31-36



Abahlali baseMjondolo Movement is a grassroots mass democratic organization

that was formed in 2005, to fight for, protect, promote and advance the

interests and the dignity of the poor in South Africa.



Abahlali has stood firm in making sure that the dignity of the poor is

respected and that we are all treated equally. We have been clear that neither

the state nor civil society has the right to speak for the poor. We have been

clear that we have the right to organize ourselves, think for ourselves and to

speak for ourselves. This has been taken as a threat by all those who have

assumed a right to think and to speak for the poor without speaking to us.



When we started this journey nobody thought that we would still be existing by

now. All those who said that our movement would not survive until now have to

accept the reality that we are still here and that we are still struggling.

That’s why today we are celebrating the 6th anniversary of the existence of

Abahlali on Sunday.



Our struggle was never a smooth sailing. Every way that we took we were obliged

to struggle. Every way that we took has led to repression. But with organized

resistance we were able to overcome the recurring forceful eviction by the

municipality. We have won many victories.



The most important victory is that in these six years of existence we have been

able to achieve our primary goal which is bringing back the dignity of the

people that live in the shacks. We have planted the seed that makes people to

realize that the fact that we are living in the shacks and that we are poor

doesn’t mean that we are unable to think. We may be poor in life but we are

rich in mind. We are rich in the togetherness and strength that we have created

together. But the struggle for a better life for all the millions of people who

live in the shacks and on the farms is not completed. The struggle for human

dignity is still at large. This is why up until today we are still calling upon

the government to partner with us and to have meaningful engagement with us. We

are calling up for a bottom up style of development. We are calling for the

government to support democratic people’s planning. We are calling for the

social value of land to come before its commercial value. We are calling for

housing to be a public good and not an opportunity for private profit. In order

to win this battle we need one another.



Our struggle has a long road to travel. There will be many dangers on this

journey. Some people will lose faith. Some will be co-opted. Others will

continue. We will make new alliances along the way. We will continue to be in a

living solidarity with all attempts by the poor to organize for a just and

democratic world. We will continue to be in a living solidarity with all those

who share our goals and respect our way of struggling.



Our autonomy, our success in organizing (by 2009 we had more than 10 000 paid

up members in 64 different settlements) and our victories against the

government were not taken lightly by the some of the ANC leaders which has

resulted in them plotting to destroy our movement in 2009 at Kennedy Road where

the movement was started. In September 2009 our Movement was attacked in the

night and then banned in Kennedy Road, our leaders had to flee their homes and

12 members who affiliate with the movement were arrested with charges of

attempted murder, murder, public violence, damage to property etc. We survived

this attack on our movement. The support from different people, their prayer,

physical support and moral support, managed to carry us through this darkness.



The Kennedy 12 spent almost a year in jail with no bail granted. This was

painful to them, to their families and to the movement. On 18 July this year

all charges against the 12 were dropped and they were all acquitted. The

witnesses who spoke against in court us were found to have been lying. The

police were found to have fabricated evidence against us. This has not only

been the victory of Abahlali but the victory of all the poor and the

marginalized in South Africa. Finally the lies of ANC and their plots have been

seen by the world.



On the same day of our anniversary we will also be celebrating the Victory of

the Kennedy 12 who have sacrificed for our struggle almost a year of their

lives in jail. The fact that we are celebrating this victory of the acquittal

of the Kennedy 12 does not mean that we are turning the blind eye on the fact

that two people died on that night, rather we are celebrating the fact that the

people who were victims of state repression are now free. We are still calling

upon the state to do a thorough and credible (which means independent of party

politic) investigation of everything that happened that night including who

really killed the two people that died on that night. We also want the state to

investigate who were the people behind the attack. And we want the state to

investigate who were the people that broke our leaders’ homes, burnt them and

stole all their things in broad day light while the police were standing by. We

want all of the truth to come out.



The 6th Anniversary and Kennedy 12 Victory celebration will be held at

eThekwini College Sport Ground, in Springfield Park next to Makro, just below

the Kennedy Road shack settlement on 27 August 2011 at 10:00 a.m.



For more information please contact



Mnikelo Ndabankulu (Media Liaison Officer) 081 3095485

Zodwa Nsibande (Abahlali National Administrator) 071 1834388

Bandile Mdlalose (Abahlali Secretary General) 071 4242815

Abahlali Head Office 031-3046420

------------

http://www.abahlali.org

http://www.khayelitshastruggles.com/

http://www.antieviction.org.za 

Labels: Activism, homeless-activism, Indigenous Solidarity, south africa

[Abahlali] We still maintain our position and reject city's flood and fire intervention strategies

Labels: Africa, African-Diaspora, homeless-activism, south africa

MURRAY WILLIAMS : Tutu calls for wealth tax for whites - Cape Argus | IOL.co.za

Tutu calls for wealth tax for whites - Cape Argus | IOL.co.za




The book, The Humanist Imperative in South Africa, contains 26 essays by leading academics and public figures and is edited by Professor John de Gruchy.

As guest of honour, Tutu recounted the myriad ways apartheid had dehumanised South Africans.

“Apartheid damaged us all; not a single one of us has escaped.”

In a break from his prepared speech, Tutu said a “wealth tax” had been suggested during the TRC process, and had enjoyed support at the time.

Moments earlier, he had told the whites in the conference room: “You all benefited from apartheid. Your children went to fancy schools, you lived in posh suburbs.”

He stressed, however, that this did not mean all whites had supported apartheid.

Speaking to the Cape Argus after his speech, Tutu expanded on his wealth tax call.

“There were many in the white community who were ready for this (at the time of the TRC process).

“It could be quite piffling, maybe 1 percent of their stock exchange holdings. It’s nothing. But it could have helped... maybe building new homes, and that would have been an extraordinary symbol of their readiness.”

Asked whether he was again calling for a “wealth tax”, Tutu said: “That’s what I’m saying.”

He then laughed: “What were you doing in there (the conference centre)? Were you listening?”

Tutu did not say how he wished the tax to be implemented, but said he hoped whites themselves would “agitate” for it to be imposed upon them.

Throughout his speech, Tutu cited numerous examples of what he saw as apartheid’s impact, which had fundamentally been an “erosion of self-esteem” and the advent of “self-hate”. He blamed South Africa’s high crime rate on this, saying: “Thus we must not be surprised at the staggering statistics of violent crime, murder, rape.

Labels: Africa, Apartheid, Racism, south africa

[Abahlali] Symphony Way Pavement Dwellers in Grahamstown to speak about their new anthology

Press Release – 9 August 2011
Students for Social Justice
Unemployed People's Movement
Symphony Way Anti-Eviction Campaign

Event 1: Pavement Dwellers to speak at Rhodes University
Venue: Sociology 1, Rhodes University
Date/Time: Thursday 11 August @ 19h00 – 21h00

Event 2: Symphony Way authors meet the Unemployed People's Movement
Venue: Duna Library in Joza Township
Date/Time: Friday 12 August @ 3pm

‘A beauty, extraordinary in every way.’
Naomi Klein, author of ‘The Shock Doctrine’ and ‘No Logo’

Students for Social Justice, the Sociology Department, and the Unemployed Peoples Movement in Grahamstown have organized two unique talks by four of the Symphony Way Pavement Dwellers, authors of No Land! No House! No Vote! Voices from Symphony Way. This extraordinary anthology of struggle it testimony and poetry written on the pavement of one of the longest running civil disobedience protests in South Africa's history.

The authors will be speaking on Thursday at Rhodes where they will discuss their struggle for land, housing and dignity with progressive academics and the Students for Social Justice. On Saturday, the authors will be meeting with the Unemployed People's Movement where they will be engaged in discussions about their respective struggles and ways of building solidarity between poor people throughout South Africa.

No Land! No House! No Vote! is a direct challenge to the publishing industry. We cannot humanise our world through a vanguard media. The right to a voice cannot be held only be elite academics, authors and politicians; it is a right that must be claimed by the poor as well.


Speakers:

* Florrie Langenhoven - Here I’ve learned to share: I don’t work, but if I’ve got dry bread I first look around if my neighbours have got something to eat before I can eat. It feels like a BIG FAMILY.
* Shakeera Samuels - I would never ever want to go back to peoples back yard again where my family will be treated like animals.
* Cynthia Twigg - Symphony Way has its little [vegetable] garden which I look after. I water it and even sew my own seeds. Tomatoes, gen-squash, sweet-melon, and other eatable vegs grew in my little garden which keep me going.
* Bonita Seconds - When they [my children] are going to grow up, they must be something. They are going to change something around in the world.

For more information on the book, please contact:

Bonita Seconds (Symphony Way author) @ 073-841-1111
Sarita Jacobs (Symphony Way secretary) @ 076-469-9843

For event info, directions and struggle info in Grahamstown contact:

Ayanda Kota (UPM) @ 078-625-6462
Ben Fogel (SSJ) @ 071-224-6524


Reviews: Cape Argus - Street people book their place on library shelf

The New Age - Living in a world turned on its head

Amandla Magazine – Review by Professor Martin Legassick


Acclaim:

"A beautiful and heart-rending book that speaks a story so often undocumented.” – Nigel Gibson, author of Fanonian Practices: From Biko to Abahlali baseMjondolo.

“The Symphony Way occupation was a real attempt at an insurgent and tenacious solidarity against an increasingly exclusionary and brutal society...All the tenacity, beauty, pain, desperation, and contradictions that breathe their life into any popular struggle haunt the pages of this searing book.” —Richard Pithouse, department of politics and international studies, Rhodes University, South Africa

“A magnificent and moving account of a long and hard-fought struggle . . . . a clarion call for basic human rights and for human dignity. A powerful insider’s view into the landscape of poverty in neoliberal South Africa.” — Michael Watts, Class of 63 Professor of Geography and Development Studies at the University of California at Berkeley, author of Curse of the Black Gold.

“An extraordinary collection of writings from the spirit of resilience and strength of the collective which lay bare the betrayal of the people in post-apartheid South Africa.” —Sokari Ekine, author and award-winning blogger

“This book carries not only the suffering of the Symphony Way communities but of the millions of poor people of the world. . . . It is through this courage that we can all hope for the real struggle that intends to put human beings at the center of our society.” —S’bu Zikode, president, Abahlali baseMjondolo Movement, South Africa

“As middle-class African journalists and activists, we thought we were telling the tale of the poorest, but here we are surpassed. Their truths, spoken in their sharp vernacular tongue, fly straight to the heart of the matter.” —Michael Schmidt, journalist and author

Labels: Africa, homeless-activism, south africa

[Abahlali] Municipal Security and Shack Dwellers Clash in the Kennedy Road Settlement

http://www.abahlali.org - Sekwanele! - http://antieviction.org.za/Sunday 3 July 2011Abahlali baseMjondolo Press StatementMunicipal Security and Shack Dwellers Clash in the Kennedy Road Settlement thisMorningAttempt at Armed De-electrification Successfully ResistedThis morning Municipal Security Guards arrived at the Kennedy Road shacksettlement and began disconnecting people from electricity. The community hadpreviously negotiated an understanding with the Municipality that they wouldnot send their security guards into the settlement to disconnect. However thismorning this agreement was violated and the people resisted the disconnections.There was a confrontation,rubber bullets were fired and stones were thrown. Ayoung man was shot in the chin with a rubber bullet at close range. A roadblockade was then organised following which both the SAPS and the Metro Policearrived on the scene. But the attempt to disconnect people from electricity wassuccessfully resisted.The new ward councillor also arrived on the scene. He told the people that hewould tell the Municipality not to disconnect anybody at Kennedy Road fromelectricity and that those that had been disconnected should reconnect. Heblamed the Municipality for the confrontation this morning and said that theMunicipality must now move swiftly to electrify all the shacks in thesettlement.The Kennedy Road comrades, and Abahlali baseMjondolo in general, have beenstruggling for electricity for many years. Before each election promises aremade and after each election the security guards and police come to disconnectthe people. The struggle for electricity for all continues.For further comment and information please contact:Mnikelo Ndabankulu, Abahlali baseMjondolo Spokesperson: 081 309 5485Mr. Sibiya, Kennedy Road Development Committee: 082 255 1213------------http://www.abahlali.orghttp://www.khayelitshastruggles.com/http://www.antieviction.org.za To unsubscribe from this list, receive a single daily digest, or change your list preferences please visit http://lists.riseup.net/www/info/abahlaliTo subscribe to the Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign list write to aec@antieviction.org.za

Labels: Activism, Africa, African-Diaspora, south africa

[Abahlali] ANC Threatens Attack on the Makause Settlement

http://www.abahlali.org - Sekwanele! - http://antieviction.org.za/Abahlali baseMjondolo stands in full solidarity with the democratically elected leadership of the Makause settlement as they face threats of violence from the ANC branch in Primrose. We are far away in distance but close in spirit and we will do all that we can to mobilise support for the comrades in Makause as their community politic faces the threat of repression from party politic. As our experience shows very well these threats must be taken very seriously by all democrats.

Makause Press Statement
Sunday 29 May 2011

Primrose ANC Branch Threatens Attack on the Leadership of the Makause Shack
Settlement in Ekurhuleni

The ANC in the Primrose branch in Ekurhuleni on the East Rand has planned
something like a protest or attack on the leadership of the Makause informal
settlement this weekend or during the week. The leadership heard this from the
grandfather of the failed ANC councillor (the Primrose ward again went to the
DA), who is in the Makause leadership. The Makause leadership is non-party
political. The ANC’s mobilisation campaign before the elections was about
promises of creating jobs. This involved members forming CCs and securing
contracts and tenders to benefit members. The person behind this is Absalom
Budeli, the failed ANC ward councillor candidate, and his branch leaders.

The ANC branch leadership is accusing the Makause leadership of supporting the
DA and of being paid to stop the community from voting, and they see
‘General’ Alfred Moyo (who is part of the Makause leadership) in the
forefront of these assumed campaigns. On election day the Municipality’s
contractor started implementation of the municipality’s high mast lighting
project to install 5 lights owed to the Makause community since 2008. This
involved employing 20 community members from Makause. This group (coordinated
by General, who himself is not employed in this project) was labelled by the
ANC as DA supporters. In the last week, there were 4 attacks on Somali shop
owners in Makause. The Makause leadership structure represents local and
foreign shop owners in the settlement. The leadership expects that these 4
attacks are connected to the ANC’s campaign to overthrow them.

Today the ANC called a meeting to elect their committee to overthrow General
and the Makause leadership by force or attack them if they resist and don’t
give up leadership to them. The Makause leadership is expecting riots in the
area. They await the outcomes of the ANC branch meeting today, and are unsure
of what might happen later.

For further information: Alfred Moyo 0734307006
------------
http://www.abahlali.org
http://www.khayelitshastruggles.com/
http://www.antieviction.org.za 

To unsubscribe from this list, receive a single daily digest, or change your list preferences please visit http://lists.riseup.net/www/info/abahlali

To subscribe to the Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign list write to aec@antieviction.org.za

Labels: Africa, homeless-activism, south africa

[Abahlali] Evictions and Intimidation Continue in Many Shack Settlements after the Local Government Elections

Abahlali baseMjondolo Press Statement
Wednesday, 25 May 2011

Evictions and Intimidation Continue in Many Shack Settlements after the Local
Government Elections

On the day after the election, 19 May 2011, the eThekwini Municipality’s Land
Invasion Unit arrived in our settlements. Mr Mdletshe from the Land Invasion
Unit arrived with his team to demolish shacks in Arnett Drive, Reservoir Hills.
When talking to residents there Mdletshe was very rude and violent to Abahlali.
He pointed at Sam Jaca and threatened him saying he is the one that took him to
the High Court. Mdletshe's team them demolished two shacks leaving the families
homeless. They had no court order and were acting without any respect for the
law, the court, the community or the families that they left homeless.

This is not the first time in recent weeks that Mdletshe has threatened our
members. On the 1st of May 2011 an umhlali was brunt to death in eMmaus in
Pinetown. On the 4th, 12th, 13th and 16th of May Mdletshe came to the eMmaus
occupation to threaten residents and undermine them. When he was challenged he
said that he does not speak to shack dwellers.

On Tuesday, 17 May 2011 Mdletshe's team went to our newly launched Abahlali
branch in Intake View and threatened residents there with eviction.

Our Richmond Farm branch, by KwaMashu, was also visited on Thursday, 19 June
2011 and shacks were demolished without an Order of the Court.

It is not only our members that are under attack. On 20 May 2011, two days
after the election, around thirty shacks were demolished in Mayville, Cato
Manor leaving many people homeless. As usual there was no court order and the
evictions were illegal and criminal acts. One family had been living in their
shack since 1986.

We are told that we must vote for a better life. We are told that voting is the
only legitimate way to make our complaints. We are told that voting is the way
to make our voices count. But the day after we are expected to vote we are
attacked violently and unlawfully by the government. Both the DA and the ANC
treat the poor with the same lack of respect and the same lack of legality. We
have sent messages of support to the people evicted from the Taflesig land
occupation in Cape Town. Under the DA and the ANC there is no meaningful
consultation with the poor. There is just violence, intimidation, destruction
and contempt. Why must we vote for parties that are united in their decision to
fight an illegal war against the poor? As we have said before there is no
democracy for the poor in South Africa. The government thinks that it is above
the law and that we are below the law. Our voices and our humanity count for
nothing. This is why people are in rebellion all over the county.

In the Kennedy Road settlement intimidation continues. There is a R350 million
road projects that has began and, as usual, development is being openly abused
for party political purposes. As usual the local ANC members have been given
control over employment on the project and, as usual, they demand ANC
membership cards for community members to be employed. The contractor has also
been threatened that their offices will be fire bombed if they employ any local
community members without the approval of the local ANC. The situation is very
volatile now.

Abahlali warn that this issue of the local ANC wanting control over all
employment opportunities is precisely what sparked the attack on our movement
in September 2009. We had developed a very fair way to allocate jobs. We did it
via a lottery. The local ANC could not accept this. They demand ANC cards and
public demonstrations of ANC support for access to jobs, fire relief, food
parcels and houses. In 2009 and 2010 they were openly issuing death threats
against our members and destroying their homes.

The new and elected leadership in Kennedy Road has approached the KRDC in exile
to seek their support as they face this attack by local party leaders. We
advise the newly elected councillor to intervene with fairness and
transparency. If he believes in democracy he will clearly and publicly state
that the local ANC has no right to only allow their own members to get jobs and
he will take action to ensure that access to jobs is not controlled by the
local party leaders.

Contact the Abahlali office on 031-3046420
------------
http://www.abahlali.org
http://www.khayelitshastruggles.com/
http://www.antieviction.org.za

Labels: Africa, south africa

[Abahlali] No! Land, No House! No, Vote! Summit (our vote are conditional)

Labels: Activism, Africa, south africa

[Abahlali] Not Yet Uhuru

UNEMPLOYED PEOPLE’S MOVEMENT (UPM)

“We call upon the right to work…”

69 “C” Nompondo Street, Grahamstown, 6139

Contacts: 072 299 5253, 078 625 6462, 073 578 3661
Email: xola.mali@yahoo.com, ayandakota@webmail.co.za

NOT YET UHURU

On the 27th of April 1994 the people of this country stood in long queues for many hours, waiting to cast their vote for the first time. In some parts of the country the weather was indeed hostile, freezing cold, while in other parts of the country it was scorching hot. Our people were voting for the first time, voting for an end to racism and for democracy and a better life - for jobs, free education and decent housing. Over and above their vote for their material needs to be met they were voting for their freedom. Or so they were made to believe!

The rays of that sunrise were breaking through the dark storm clouds. The first beams of the new sun were making their way through the clouds into the new blue sky. After centuries of oppression hope was rekindled, a new nation, a rainbow nation was born. Or so we were made to believe.

I remember watching the proceedings on television. I saw the Right Reverend, the Arch Bishop Desmond Tutu, casting his vote. The great man then jumped and said “Free at last! Free at last!” He was coming on the heels of the former president, Nelson Mandela.

Freedom is the ability of the people not to be oppressed and to be able to determine their own future collectively and by their own wills. Freedom is the realization of the will of the people. When there is freedom the government is for the people and by the people because the people govern themselves. Freedom is the ability of the people to determine their own destiny. Freedom is self government.

When there is freedom the people do not have to beg the government to recognize them as important because they are the government. When there is freedom people are free from hunger, poverty, diseases, homelessness and an inability to access basic needs. Justice, peace, dignity and access to the country’s wealth are central to freedom.

Freedom means that people must come first. It means people before profit. It means people before the big transnational corporations. It means that the people’s sovereignty and rights have been restored!

Freedom does not mean that the people vote for some few politicians to take their friends and relatives and go and join the old white capitalists as they feast off the devastation of the people behind high walls and police officers who shoot us to kill us. Freedom does not mean that our so called leaders become managers of capital, running the country and disciplining the people on behalf of the capital.

Freedom does not mean that politicians become little Gods. Freedom is also not the rule of experts in civil society. Freedom is not the rule of the police. In a free country it is the voice of the citizens that matters the most. If Azania was free the voice of every Azanian and of every community in Azania would matter equally. Until everyone’s voice counts equally we cannot say that we are free.

After seventeen years of democracy our townships are broken. All you see is drunken men and women walking aimlessly like zombis their blood stream flowing with cheap alcohol. This is how we drug ourselves against the nightmare of a democracy that is really neo-apartheid and not post-apartheid. This is how we drug ourselves against a society that has no respect for us, no place for us and no future for us. In the Eastern Cape they drink umtshovalale. In Kwa-Zula-Natal they drink isiqatha. In Gauteng they drink gavani. In the Westarn Cape they drink spirits. This alcohol has a hazardous effect. My people, young and old, have been silently taken to the graves due to the effects of this alcohol. We are poisoning ourselves to drug ourselves against the horror of our lives. Throughout South Africa young people smoke ARVs. It is a well known thing. We live below poverty line and we have completely lost hope.

South Africa is the most unequal country in the world. The gap between the rich and the poor is so vast and it is growing. The unemployment rate is so high. It is above 40%. Poverty rates are sky rocketing. In a place like Alice residents drink unsafe water. At times there is no water at all. In Grahamstown we continue to use the bucket system to shit. All around South Africa there are crumbling RDP houses and municipalities are falling under corruption while Zuma’s family, his wives, children and relatives’ are becoming billionaires. Shiceka spent R640 000 in one year on rooms for himself and his staff at the One & Only hotel in Cape Town, flew to Switzerland first class to visit a girlfriend in jail and hired a limousine to drive him to the prison. What kind of politician lives like this while the people are suffering as we are? What kind of politician lives like this while South Africa has become "the protest capital of the world” with one of the highest rates of public protest in the world?

Shiceka is a predator and not a liberator. He is not the only one. In 2010 Eskom announced its decision to increase the tariffs by 35% assaulting the unemployed and the poor while the ANC Company, Chancellor House, are ripping the profit from the shaking hands of the people. Very soon the coffers of this country will run short and we will be asked to give even more to the ANC, to Chancellor House and the Zuma family. The way they are looting our resources is beyond imagination. They way that they have privatised the struggle of the people is incredible.

We are a bleeding nation. All the power that belongs to us has been centralized to the ruling elite. We do not participate on the model of the RDP house that must be built. They decide for us. The Integrated Development Plan (IDP) meetings are a platform to manage us. There is no veracity. They choose those who must represent us in local chambers, come back and parade them as our leaders. When we ask to speak to these leaders they call the police. We have no power. We have no voice. We have no freedom to celebrate today. We live in a radically unjust society. We are oppressed.

The ANC tries to control the people with its police, social grants and rallies with celebrities and musicians. The ANC tries to drug us against their betrayal by keeping us drunk on memories of the struggle – the same struggle that they have betrayed. But everywhere the ANC is loosing control. Protest is spreading everywhere. Everywhere people are boycotting elections and running independent candidates. Everywhere people are organizing themselves into their own autonomous organizations and movements.

Mostafa Omara, narrating the Egyptian Revolution, writes:

“People look more relaxed and at peace -- you can see it on their faces. People in Egypt will tell you: Gone are the days when we felt helpless and little; gone are the days when the police could humiliate us and torture us; gone are the times when the rich and the businessmen think they could run the country as if it was their own private company.”

In South Africa we long for the same feeling! Seventeen years did not relive the pain and suffering of centuries we endured under the apartheid government and the colonial governments before that.

Revolutions do not spring out of the blue. Revolutions are organised through the united action of men and women, rural and urban, which spring from their needs. Revolutions happen when ordinary men and women begin to discuss their own lives and their own futures and to take action to take control of their own lives.

The rebellion of the poor that has engulfed this country is growing. More and more organisations are emerging. More and more people have become radicalised. More and more communities have lost all illusions in the ANC after experiencing the violence of the predator state. More and more people are starting and joining discussions about the way forward for the struggle to take the country back.

We need to move forward with more determination working all the time to build and to unite our struggles. As we connect our struggles, from Ficksburg to Grahamstown, from Cape Town to Johannesburg and Durban, we are, slowly but steadily, building a new mass movement. We are building a network of struggles that are determined to be in what has been called a living solidarity with each other.

Struggle continues! Victory is certain!
Nothing for us without us.

Yours truly

Ayanda Kota, Unemployed People’s Movement Chairperson, Grahamstown

078 6256 462
ayandakota@webmail.co.za
upmstatements@gmail.com

Labels: Activism, Africa, African-Diaspora, south africa

[Abahlali] Our sadness on UnFreedom Day

Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign
27 April 2011

For the poor in South Africa, there is no freedom.

Today from 10am till 2pm, the movements will come to QQ Section Informal Settlement for an UnFreedom Day rally. QQ was the victim of a huge shack fire just before Christmas in 2010 so the location is fitting for our Shack Fire Summit

The Anti-Eviction Campaign, Abahlali baseMjondolo, the Backyarders, the Landless People's Movement, and other community of people living in poverty throughout South Africa are not going to celebrate Freedom Day. Instead, we are going to mourn it. The 27th of April, to the poor, is a day of mourning.

We live in shacks, in other people's backyards, in rotting council homes and other urban and rural ghettos. But its not only about where we live or what services we receive. UnFreedom Day is also a call for dignity. Because we are poor, the government treats us as though we are less than human. This is why we are forced to hold UnFreedom Day - to asert our right to dignity.

Today, our focus will be the scourage of urban informal settlements: The shack fire. For the past 17 years of 'democracy', our communities have been ravaged each and every year by easily preventable shack fires. The solution to shack fires? Simple: houses and electrification now!

We demand special attention from government for our communities (especially our children) which are victims of shack fires. We also demand statistics from government as to the extent of our victimisation from these fires. We demand a moratorium on the selling of land to rich foreigners from Europe and the US and for that land to be given to us for the building of houses.

For more information, contact:

Mncedisi 0785808646

For directions to QQ section, call:
Mzonke Poni @ 073 2562 036 or 083 4465 081
or Mthobeli Qona @ 076 041 0057

--
--
Our new book:
No Land! No House! No Vote! Voices from Symphony Way (2011). You can pre-order it direct from the publisher or on Amazon.

When they evicted us, I just lost it. Those same policemen couldn’t arrest my child’s murderer, but they can kick us poor people out of the only houses we have… - Symphony Way resident

Labels: Africa, African-Diaspora, homeless-activism, south africa

[Abahlali] No Freedom for the Forgotten

http://www.abahlali.org - Sekwanele! - http://antieviction.org.za/


Abahlali baseMjondolo KZN Press Statement
21 April 2011

No Freedom for the Forgotten

On the 27th April the whole country will be asked to commemorate the
seventeenth year of so called “Freedom”.

We cannot forget that many people died and fought hard and with courage and
determination to gain this freedom from apartheid. We honour those people all
the time. Many of our members struggled in trade unions and in community
organisations. We have members whose ancestors fought in the war fought from
the Nkandla forest and in the rebellion on Nguza Hill. The struggle against
apartheid is our struggle.

But we have a clear understanding of what that struggle was for and it was not
just to replace white politicians with black politicians. That struggle was not
just to force white business to take on some black partners. That struggle was
to ensure that South Africa belongs, really belongs, to all who live in it.
That struggle was to ensure that there would be land and housing for all, that
the doors of learning and culture would be opened to all and that there would
be work for all. That struggle was for equality, to ensure that every person
counts and that every person counts the same.

It is so sad to still hear and see that seventeen years after the end of
apartheid there are millions of people who are ‘forgotten’ and yet they are
being told that they are free. They are being told that they must go to the
stadiums on an empty stomach to listen to politicians tell them how far they
have come and then go home to a shack.

We are told every day that freedom means voting plus service delivery. We do
not accept this definition and we will not be intimidated by all those who say
that our refusal to accept this definition means that we are immature and
unprofessional. As a movement of the forgotten it is our duty to continually
ask ourselves what freedom really means. Freedom is always something that
should be defined by the people.

Is it true that people are free if they are still living under the fear of
being evicted? Are people free if they are still living under the fear of dying
in shack fires because authorities deny them their basic right to have access
to electricity? Are people free if they must still fear rape? Are people free
if their children are still dying from diarrhoea? Are people free if they are
still living in shacks? Are people free when they are being forced into transit
camps or tiny badly made houses out in the human dumping grounds?
Are people free when they vote for councillors that never come to speak to them
again till the next election? Is democracy really supposed to be a system for
the politicians to use the poor as ladders?

We are being told that there is a freedom of expression. Are we free if people
that exercise their right to free expression are being beaten up and shot to
death by the police who are supposed to be protecting us? Our movement and all
the other movements of the poor like the Anti-Eviction Campaign, the Landless
People’s Movement and the Unemployed People’s Movement, as well as many
smaller community organisations around the country, have faced serious police
repression for many years. Most of the middle classes have not had eyes to see
the march bannings, intimidation, arrests, beatings, torture and even killings
at the hands of the police. Most of the middle class have not had eyes to see
how the police have supported party thugs to attack the autonomous
organisations of the poor.

But after what happened in the Free State where a member of the community who
was protesting against the lack of services delivered to them by their
councillor was seen on a national television being beaten up by police, who
were more than five, and being shot in the chest and dying on the scene no one
can say that they do not have eyes to see what the police are doing to us. This
is not the freedom that we fought for.

We are ignored when we do not resist and repressed when we do resist. This is
not freedom. In fact it is oppression.

Therefore it is clear that the struggle must continue. It is also clear from
the movements and protests around the country that the struggle is continuing.
The question is how we should struggle. Some people are still trying to force
the parties to listen to the people from inside the parties. But in Cape Town
and everywhere else people are protesting as their right to freedom of choice
is being violated by the political parties who choose who should be the
candidate of being the councillor, leaving out people who are being elected
democratically by the members of their community. Yet we claim South Africa is
a Democratic country. What kind of a democracy is this? It is a Demon-crazy.

Even if people are complying with the law and have peaceful marches the current
situation is that the even if the authorities happen to come to collect
memorandums they have this tendency of not answering to the demands of the
communities. People organise and march and the response is either silence or
intimidation. Is being poor in this country a curse?

Yet as we are towards local government election they politicians are busy
telling people to go in their numbers to voting stations to vote for people who
will not even listen to the people who have put them into power. The people on
the grassroots are people who don’t count in this society except when it is
time to vote. The politicians are making all kinds of promises when they want
our votes. But when we ask them to keep those promises they tell the police to
arrest us, beat us and shoot us.

If you are a worker the boss wants your work. Therefore you put pressure by
refusing to work. If you are a tenant the landlord wants your rent therefore
you put pressure by refusing to pay rent. If you are a citizen the parties want
your vote therefore you put pressure by refusing to vote for them. All the
parties oppress the poor. We are evicted and shot at everywhere in South Africa
from Durban to Cape Town to Johannesburg and in all the small towns like
Grahamstown and Ficksburg. Therefore there is no point in voting for one party
to discipline another party.

The way for the poor to be able to discipline the politicians is for us to
organise ourselves to build our own power. As a movement we have decided to
continue with the No land, No house, No Vote campaign for this election. We are
calling on the poor to boycott the election and to instead organise themselves
and build their organisation that can defend their own interests.

We will not be going to the stadiums on the 27th of April to listen to the
politicians. We will meeting amongst ourselves to mourn the death of freedom
and to discuss the best ways to take our struggle forward. We are sending
delegates to the funeral of Andries Tatane and we will begin with a report back
from the funeral and a minute of silence for the all the people that have been
killed by the police in the struggles of the poor since 1994.

We will, once again, call our event Unfreedom Day because there is no freedom
for the poor. The racist government is gone yet most people are still
suffering, most people still do not count in this society. We are not free if
we are still:

• Living in shacks.
• Having no access to electricity.
• Without land.
• Having no access to water.
• Having no toilets.
• Without work.
• Being forcibly evicted and forcibly removed to transit camps and rural
human dumping grounds.
• Being denied the right to plan our own future.
• Being repressed when we try to organise.
• Living in a society in which there is no dignity and no respect of the
poor.

Our living conditions are the same as they were under apartheid. We are still
treated with contempt and repression when we want to organise and to plan our
own future. It is this reality that encourages us not to vote. It is not that
we are not patriotic of our country. The problem is that we are living in a new
kind of apartheid error under a new administration. The problem is that we are
not yet free.

We want to be very clear that freedom is not only a question of service
delivery and budget constraints. It is a question of our full participation in
all discussions and decisions about the future of our own communities and our
country. It is a question of honesty, respect and dignity for the poor. It is a
question of full recognition that the poor count in our society.

In November 2005 our movement organised a march on Obed Mlaba from the Foreman
Road settlement. That march was illegally banned by the notorious Michael
Sutcliffe. We decided to march in peaceful defiance of that ban. As soon as we
left the settlement the police attacked us with rubber bullets, stun grenades,
tear gas and live ammunition. A number of us were seriously injured. Obed Mlaba
did not condemn the police violence or the banning of march. He said that we
were a third force that had been created to disrupt the elections in 2006 and
that we would fail to exist after the 2006 election. Well it is now five years
since that election and we are still here. We are still refusing to vote for
our oppressors. We are still struggling for a real freedom, a freedom that will
recognise the equal humanity of everyone.

The 2011 Unfreedom Day Rally will be held in Foreman Road Shack Settlement,
Clare Estate, Durban, starting from 10:00 am on Wednesday, 27 April 2011.

For more information and comment please contact:

Mnikelo Ndabankulu: 081 309 5485
Zodwa Nsibande: 071 183 4388/031 304 6420
Bandile Mdlalose: 071 4242 815/031 304 6420
------------
http://www.abahlali.org
http://www.khayelitshastruggles.com/
http://www.antieviction.org.za 

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Labels: Activism, south africa

[Abahlali] March on the uGu District Mayor on Monday

Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign

Abahlali baseMjondolo Movement S.A
Press Statement Saturday, 26 March 2011

March on the uGu District Mayor to Demand that Nomusa Dube Extend Her
Investigation into Corruption to the Vulamehlo Municipality

Abahlali baseMjondolo Movement S.A is a social movement that fights to protect
and promote the interests of the poor in S.A. While our movement works hard to
build and to sustain democratic structures in our communities, to organise our
own community controlled projects and to secure land and housing in our cities
we also work hard to partner with all government departments and development
agencies that are willing to help to better the lives of our communities and to
get rid of corruption wherever necessary.

We have recently welcomed the promise made by Ms. Nomusa Dube, Minister of
Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs in KwaZulu-Natal, to investigate
corruption in the eThekwini Municipality without fear or favour. We have made
it clear that we have numerous cases of corruption to report to her
investigation and that we are willing to offer our full support to her
investigation.

But the problems are not just in the eThekwini Municipality. The situation is
also very bad in Pietermaritzburg, in Howick, in Tongaat, and in many other
places. For so many years our communities who live in rural areas have not been
respected and acknowledged as South African citizens equal to all other
citizens. There are serious problems in the Vulamehlo Local Municipality which
falls under the Ugu District Municipality between Umzinto and Umkomaas on the
South Coast of KwaZulu-Natal. On several times we have raised our concerns with
the Manager of the Vulamehlo Local Municipality. Our voices have not been
heard. His eyes remain closed to us. The situation in the Vulamehlo
Municipality is very bad. The poor are not recognised in this Municipality.

As a movement we have always been aware that what the poor have been promised
in terms of human rights and service delivery is not enough for a dignified
life. Of course it would be much better to live safely and freely in a well
located RDP house than to be repressed in a shack and therefore we struggle for
rights to be made real and promises to be kept. But we always remember that
these promises are only promises to help the poor to survive poverty and that
they are not promises to share the land, cities and wealth of the country and
to end poverty. We always keep a bigger vision of justice in mind as we
struggle for small victories here and there.

The government cannot deny us the right to hold it accountable to its own
promises and its own laws. They cannot say that because they are elected they
are representing the will of the people when they are breaking their own
promises and laws. We will hold them to their own promises and laws while
always being aware that the struggle for dignity - for equality, justice and
freedom - must never be reduced to a struggle for human rights and service
delivery. We will take a slice of bread but we will not forget that we deserve
the full loaf.

The dignities of the poor have not been recognised in the Vulamehlo
Municipality as demanded by the Bill of Rights in Chapter 2 of the South
African Constitution. We as Abahlali baseMjondolo feel that we are not honoured
and respected by the Vulamehlo Municipality and that it does not respect the
Constitution. This Municipality is violating our Human Rights as enshrined in
the Constitution of South Africa. Section 26 of the Constitution states that
housing is a fundamental Human Right but this municipality and its council has
not met that obligation and it has also violated section 10 of the S.A
Constitution in the Bill of rights.

We are also aware that we have been misled by the Municipality and its
councillors who have given us false information about the development that is
suppose to take place in our community. According to the IDP we have found that
development is supposed to have already taken place in Wards 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8.
But in fact no development has happened in these wards! This Municipality does
not even use its own drafted policy document of service delivery which is in
the IDP. So this municipality does not follow the Municipality Systems Act no
32 of 2000 Section 35 which stipulates that an IDP adopted by the council of a
Municipality is the principal strategic planning instrument which guides and
informs all planning and development as well as decision with regard to
planning management and development in the Municipality. It binds the
Municipality in the exercise of its executive authority.

When ever poor people make it clear that we will not accept oppression we are
shown to be criminals. Yet it is the Vulamehlo Municipality that does not
respect the law and the Constitution.

We have also noted that there is serious corruption that is going on,
especially in the allocation houses for the poor in Dududu. There are about 20
people that have been given houses according to the Municipality while in
reality they are still living in informal housing structures hoping that one
day they will get houses and not being aware that their houses have been
corrupted away. Housing is a dream that will never come true for them without
the intervention of the MEC of COGTA, Ms Nomusa Dube.

So therefore we call on the MEC to investigate on these matters that have been
raised by the community of Dududu. We want to know what happened to the
projects that appear in the IDP on page 116 – 118 of the SDBIP. We are also
concerned about the fact that tenders are all being given to one company used
as a service provider by this municipality. What happened to the tax payer’s
money that was allocated for Vulamehlo Projects? The budget is there on paper
but not in practice. Houses are built and delivered on paper but no on the
round.

There are not even any projects for the youth, women and other vulnerable
groups in this municipality.

So therefore we would like the MEC to intervene to this matter as a matter of
urgency. We are demanding that the uGu District Mayor must respond to us with
14 days after our protest on the 28th of March 2011

Our protest will start from Mjundwini Community Hall from 8am and proceed to
the Dududu police station where the Memorandum will be handed over at 12.

For further information please contact:

Bandile Mdlalose
Abahlali baseMjondolo (Secretary General)
071 424 2815

Sphiwe Mbhele
uMjundwini Community Committee
082 763 032
------------
http://www.abahlali.org
http://www.khayelitshastruggles.com/
http://www.antieviction.org.za 

Labels: homeless-activism, south africa