South Africa
Neither the march nor the money are ours
Abahlali baseMjondolo press release in response to media confusion between Abahlali and the World Bank sponsored NGO Slum Dwellers International (SDI), critiquing mainstream development discourse. A press release from SDI is also provided.
[b]Slum Dwellers International (SDI) is a global NGO strongly supported by the World Bank, USAid and the Gates Foundation. In South Africa the state, which is highly repressive to shack dwellers and their organisations, has a formal partnership with SDI.
All charges dropped against Kennedy 6
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Six activists from the Abahlali baseMjondolo in court on murder charges have been released with all charges dropped.
Abahlali baseMjondolo began in the 7000 strong Kennedy Road shack settlement and it is here were the state has concentrated repression. One year and one week ago six key activists in the settlement were arrested on a trumped up murder charge (the same tactic was used against the Landless People's Movement in Johannesburg the year before).
Democracy in my experience
Philani Zungu offers a brief but powerful account of the lived experience of life as a shack dweller under democracy in South Africa.
People have different definitions of democracy.
Some people say that democracy means freeing everyone to do whatever they want, regardless of rule or controls, with no instructions or boundaries, no importance to whether what is done is wrong or right.
When choices can no longer be choices - S'bu Zikode
S'bu Zikode wrote this article in early 2007 when he was finally forced out of his job at a petrol station as punishment for his political activities with Abahlali baseMjondolo. As of March 2008 he remains unemployed.
When Choices Can No Longer Be Choices
by S'bu Zikode
The 'No Land, No House, No Vote' campaign still on for 2009
Article restating Abahlali baseMjondolo's anti-statist, anti-electoral politics seen as more or less treasonable by the state and 'ignorant' by the NGO left, some of whom suggested that Abahlali militants should be given 'voter education' so that they could be taught to 'understand democracy'.
The No Land, No House, No Vote Campaign Still on for 2009
by M'du Hlongwa
From party politics to service delivery to the politics of the poor
Philani Zungu's article arguing against the lip-service of politicians of 'service delivery' to South Africa's poor.
I hope that one day it will be realised by our government officials how much betrayal they have served to the floors on which they stand and where they belong. It is very sad that our politicians forget that their power started with people like us, people like the red shirts.
We are the restless majority - S'bu Zikode
S'bu Zikode's article after Abahlali baseMjondolo's successful anti-electoral campaign in 2006.
[i]This article by S'bu Zikode appeared in Durban's elite bourgeois newspaper, the Mercury, in July 2006. After Abahlali baseMjondolo put twenty thousand people on the streets in support of a boycott of the February 2006 local government elections in the face of major militarised state intimidation the middle classes began to concede some space to the voices of the militant poor.
The police and Abahlali baseMjondolo
This list of police abuses suffered by Abahlali baseMjondolo between 19 March 2005 and 13 November 2007 is an important document of record.
The Police & Abahlali baseMjondolo
A List of Key Incidents of Police Harassment Suffered by Abahlali baseMjondolo
- compiled by Stephanie Lynch and Zodwa Nsibande
Struggle is a school: the rise of a shack dwellers movement in Durban, South Africa
This article by Richard Pithouse, first published in Monthly Review, charts the rise of the militant South African shack dwellers' movement Abahlali baseMjondolo which first emerged in 1995 and has gone from strength to strength since then despite severe state repression.
Broken Promises
On November 9, 1993, the African National Congress (ANC) issued a press statement condemning the housing crisis in South Africa as “a matter which falls squarely at the door of the National Party regime and its surrogates.” It went on to describe conditions in the informal settlements as “indecent” and announced that
Police open fire on Cape Town residents resisting eviction
Following on from previous libcom coverage, South African police opened fire on Delft residents defending their homes from unlawful evictions.
The High Court upheld Thubelisha Homes and the state’s eviction order against the community, which the residents decided to appeal at the Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein.
