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Abahlali baseMjondolo to hold Heritage Celebration in Gauteng

27 September 2019
Abahlali baseMjondolo Press Statement

Abahlali baseMjondolo to hold Heritage Celebration in Gauteng

Our movement continues to grow and to support the impoverished to organise themselves and to build democratic counter-power to the state and capital. We now have branches in five provinces. There has been rapid growth in the Eastern Cape and Mpumalanga, and we are steadily advancing in Gauteng.

The recent xenophobic attacks were centred in Gauteng, and they continue in various neighbourhoods. In a number of neighbourhoods people continue to be removed from their homes by xenophobic mobs. Some of our members tell us that they are still sleeping with their IDs under their pillows. Continue reading →

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Abahlali to Commemorate our Fallen Heroes through the Annual Thuli Ndlovu Memorial Lecture

Monday, 23 September 2019
Abahlali baseMjondolo press statement

Abahlali to Commemorate our Fallen Heroes through the Annual Thuli Ndlovu Memorial Lecture

September is a sad month for our movement. Our offices and our homes in the Kennedy Road settlement were ransacked, attacked and destroyed in September 2009. Our leaders were violently driven from the Kennedy Road after the conspiracy to assassinate our leaders including S’bu Zikode failed. After this attack the then MEC for Safety and Community Liaison Willies Mchunu celebrated the “demise” of Abahlali. This attack happened in the presence of the police. It was September 2014 when Nqobile Nzuza, an Abahlali student who was 17 years old, was shot dead by the police during peaceful protest in Cato Crest. It was September 2014 when Thuli Ndlovu our chairperson in KwaNdengezi was assassinated by a hitman hired by two ANC councillors and their gun man (hit man). The councillors and their hit man were later sentenced to life imprisonment by the Durban High Court. Continue reading →

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Abahlali baseVusimuzi Comrades to Appear in Ekurhuleni Magistrate’s Court this Morning

Thursday, 19 September 2019
Abahlali baseMjondolo press statement

Abahlali baseVusimuzi Comrades to Appear in Ekurhuleni Magistrate’s Court this Morning

In August this year, in the Women’s month, two women from Vusimuzi-Section, Tembisa, Mam Hlatshwayo and Neli, were arrested and charged with fabricated cases for organising and loudhailing in the community. This follows the top down and imposed re-blocking project that has been imposed on the community. Reblocking has become a new eviction terminology to justify eviction by the City of Ekurhuleni. The community resisted reblocking in streets and in courts.

Continue reading →

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Urban Shack Settlements as a Site of Struggle

Urban Shack Settlements as a Site of Struggle

A talk given at the ‘Urban activism: Staking Claims in the 21 Century City’ conference at Harvard University on 13 September 2019.

S’bu Zikode

I am very honoured and humbled to be invited here at Harvard University to speak on Urban Activism. I take this opportunity to express my sincere gratitude to the Centre for Middle Eastern Studies who have invited me, and made it possible for organised shack dwellers in South Africa to be represented at this prestigious platform. I am also grateful to Abahlali baseMjondolo for entrusting me to speak here, and with this excellent opportunity for our movement.

When we take our place in our society we take it humble but firm. Today we take it here at Harvard. Just as we occupy land we also try to occupy our place in all discussions that are relevant to us and our lives.  Continue reading →

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Today’s Abahlali General Assembly to Discuss the National Crisis of Violence Against Women, Migrants, Children and Impoverished People

Sunday, 8 September 2019
Abahlali baseMjondolo Press Statement

Today’s Abahlali General Assembly to Discuss the National Crisis of Violence Against Women, Migrants, Children and Impoverished People

Our country is in a deep and very painful crisis. Millions of people see no future for their lives and we face terrible violence from the state and each other. Husbands attack wives. Neighbours attacks neighbours. Fathers attack their own children. The state destroys our homes with violence every day. No one is safe. Nowhere is safe.

As impoverished people we have been living in a constant state of emergency for years. We have lost 18 comrades in a few years. Most of them have been killed by the municipal Land Invasion Unit of the eThekwini Municipality. Some of them have been killed by the South African Police, some of them have been killed by the Metro police, some of them have been killed by the izinkabi hired by ANC councillors. Continue reading →

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Abahlali baseMjondolo Condemns the Xenophobic Attacks

Wednesday, 4 September 2019
Abahlali baseMjondolo Press Statement

Abahlali baseMjondolo Condemns the Xenophobic Attacks

The recent attacks on our brothers and sisters in Pretoria and Johannesburg are a disgrace that needs to be condemned in the strongest possible way. Abahlali baseMjondolo have always condemned this kind of inhumanity. We have always understood that the old Bantustans, now turned into provinces, and the colonial boarders, were created by the colonisers to be able rule and control us. We have always understood that we were made poor by racial capitalism and that it is the alliance between the ANC and racial capitalism that keeps us poor.

Our movement was formed on the foundation of Ubuntu, where the spirit of community and working together is encouraged. Umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu. A person is a person whenever and wherever they find themselves, and must be respected as a person. A neighbour is a neighbour and a comrade is a comrade without regard for the province or country in which they were born, or which language they speak.  Continue reading →

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Abahlali welcomes the KZN ANC decision to fire Zandile Gumede

Wednesday 14 August 2019
Abahlali baseMjondolo press statement

Abahlali welcomes the KZN ANC decision to fire Zandile Gumede

Yesterday the ANC Provincial Executive Committee (PEC) finally fired the long embattled mayor of eThekwini Zandile Gumede.

We wish to welcome this decision which is long overdue. Gumede is facing serious charges of corruption and irregularities. The charges relate to a R208 million Durban Solid Waste (DSW) tender to clean the city’s refuse. At least R37 million of that money was meant to provide water and sanitation to shack settlements in the city. It is alleged that Gumede has been interfering in the issuing of tenders in order to enrich herself. This is what the Nigel Gumede ANC told us in the past: that they will eat for us and on our behalf. They said as long as the ANC is in power Abahlali will get nothing from this government. We have seen that the Zandile Gumede ANC is the same as the Nigel Gumede ANC.  Continue reading →

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Abahlali to celebrate Women’s Day Tomorrow

Saturday, 10 August 2019
Abahlali baseMjondolo

Abahlali to celebrate Women’s Day Tomorrow

As part of the celebration of the role that women’s power played in the realisation of our democracy, and the role that women’s power plays in our struggles to defend and advance that democracy today, the Abahlali baseMjondolo Women’s League will hold a Women’s Day Event at the Surat Hindoo and Association Hall in Prince Edward Street. The event will start at 10 am this Sunday.

Women in our movement have been always on the forefront of our struggle. Many of the women in our movement have made serious sacrifices in the building of this movement. Some women have given their lives to this struggle. We will honour all those women who have lost their lives in our struggle. Continue reading →

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Suspended eThekwini mayor returns to Durban Commercial Court on charges of corruption today

Thursday, 8 August 2019
Abahlali baseMjondolo press statement

Suspended eThekwini mayor returns to Durban Commercial Court on charges of corruption today

The eThekwini mayor, Zandile Gumede will today appear before the magistrate, along with the chairperson of the ANC in eThekwini Region. This follows her arrest and serious charges on corruption. The charges relate to a R208 million Durban Solid Waste tender. She was released on R50 000 bail few months ago.

It is alleged that at least R37 million of that money had been set aside to provide water and sanitation to shack settlements. However it is alleged that Gumede, Mondli Mthembu who is the chairperson of Human Settlement in the City, and 7 more senior officials corrupted that money to enrich themselves.  Continue reading →

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Abahlali to hold Memorial Service for baby Khwezi Mlingo

11 July 2019
Abahlali baseMjondolo press statement

Abahlali to hold Memorial Service for baby Khwezi Mlingo

At 12 pm tomorrow Abahlali baseMjondolo members will hold a Memorial Service for baby Khwezi at the eNkanini land occupation in Cato Manor. Baby Khwezi Mlingo was burnt to ashes on Tuesday at 8pm after a candle fell causing a shack fire that took her life and injured her two siblings. This community, like many shack communities, does not have formal access to water and electricity.

For too long now Abahlali have been serving our life sentence in the shacks, without the basic services that can keep people safe, a life sentence handed by the ANC government. The City has vowed never to render any services to Abahlali settlements as long as the ANC is still in charge of government. This decision was taken since Nigel Gumede and Obed Mlaba were mayors of Durban and it has been continued till today. Anyone who rebels against the corruption and violence of the ANC, against the indignity in which the ruling party forces us to live, is denied access to basic services and housing.  Continue reading →