Ward 88 BEC Refuses to Go to the People

26 July 2012
Combined AbM & UPM Press Statement

Ward 88 BEC Refuses to Go to the People

For the past months the organised poor in Ward 88 in Durban have been fighting for their rights, and the resignation of Nomzamo Mkhize who is the current ANC Ward Councillor.

Their struggle has led to activists being arrested, shot at with real bullets by the police and threats and an assault at the hands of the councillor. Despite all these violations of their right to participate in decision making that directly affects them the activists in Ward 88 did not give up and have shown that they are prepared to continue their fight for justice and their human dignity to be installed.

A strong political decision was taken by the people to occupy the councillors’ office to show that they did not want her anymore. It was again a collective community decision that every Sunday at 14:00pm a community mass meeting will take place which will be followed by a daily occupation which finishes everyday at around 19:00pm. These collective actions were decided on because they create space for as many people as possible to participate in the struggle and in the discussions that guide it.

On Sunday 15 July 2012 after the meeting at the Peoples’ Office (Occupation area) the councillor, Nomzamo Mkhize, together with her son, asked Thabile Ngcobo why is she attending ‘these stupid meetings’ and then slapped her, kicked her and took a knife and tore her T-Shirt.

A case was opened on the same day but the councillor was not arrested. On Tuesday morning the community closed the Zwelethu Train Station in protest. When the police to try and force the station back open the protestors asked them why is the Councillor not arrested and yet they are so quick to come and arrest the public. The police and protestors had conflicts which led to the police not being able to arrest any community member.

This result putted enough pressure to the BEC to finally alert Nigel Gumede, the Chairperson of the Housing Portfolio Committee and Infrastructure, that the community is getting out of hand. In the past the community once mandated the BEC to call for a urgent meeting with Nigel and they turned a blind eye to this demand. But with the pressure from the various protests Gumede quickly called the AbM General Secretary, Bandile Mdlalose to set up an engagement meeting which took place on Monday 23 July 2012. The BEC of the local ANC were also invited to the meeting.

The meeting was the usual game with lot of promises and hope. It was said that development projects are supposed to take place very soon. It also identified the poverty in the area and said that the municipality is willing to act on these issues the community is raising.

A written response was also given from the Mayor to the memorandums sent to him by the struggle in Ward 88. In this document it was suggested that Councillor stop working as the community’s anger had been noted and that a political solution will be identified. It was stated that the problem between the community and the councillor needs to be addressed politically within the ward structures. This response points to the ANC BEC as the structure that must resolve the problems.

After the meeting with Nigel Gumede, the BEC and the community representatives had a quick meeting. It was decided that part of the way forward was that a community report back meeting be held. However the community representatives had already decided at a mass meeting at the occupation on Sunday the 22 July that there will be a report meeting which will at the People’s Place on Sunday 29 July 2012.

The BEC said that they wanted to be part of that meeting and the community leaders agreed that they can come as they are also part of the community. However the BEC then started saying that the People’s Place is not a good place for them to attend a meeting. They started identifying that the area is risky as it might have snakes and there are bottles that may cut them.

This was a huge disrespect to the people as they have been staying there for quite a number of weeks with some sleeping there and none of what the BEC is saying has happened. A huge noise then took place at the City hall took place with the passing of words from both groups. The community representatives started saying that the BEC is stubborn and asking why are they refusing to go to the people, especially if they saying that they represent the people. The community representatives argued that the BEC are no different to the councillor who also refuses to come to the people. It was said that the People’s Place reflects directly how the people live. It tells the story of their daily lives. One of the reasons why the shack dwellers in Ward 88 are so angry with the councillor is that she calls the shack dwellers by bad names. At the City Hall the BEC repeated the councillor’s arrogance by saying that the representatives of the shack dwellers are uneducated people that don’t understand politics or respect the City Hall. This shows that the problem is not just the Ward Councillor. There is a general tendency to disrespect poor people in the ANC and to treat us as dirty and stupid whereas in fact we are people like all other people but people that are oppressed by a system that disregards our humanity.

These have raised so many questions about what kind of leadership the ANC wants to impose on people in Durban. Should a leader not be where the people want them to be? If so why are they not coming to the People’s Place where the people are? Should leaders not respect the people that they say they have a right to lead?

There is a big difference between a structure that comes out of the ruling party and a structure that comes out of the community. A party structure is accountable upwards to the party bosses. A community struggle is accountable downwards towards the people in the community. AbM has always insisted that people have the right to organise and represent themselves and to refuse to be represented by party or NGO structures that are imposed on to communities and struggles from above.

From the start of the struggle in Ward 88 the ANC BEC has never supported the struggle. They did not intervene when people were being beaten by the police or shot in their beds at night. They only intervened when the struggle started to put pressure on senior ANC leaders. Now that the BEC is responding it is demanding that it must run the report back meeting and announce the various promises that Gumede has made to the community.

Whenever people on the ground are able to organise and to win victories the politicians try to distribute those victories through the local party structures and to force people to accept the authority of the party structures.

However this struggle will not be handed over to the BEC. The occupation will continue and the struggle of ‘Nomzamo Must Go’ will continue until Nomzamo Mkhize resigns. The community has a right to organise itself and to represent itself outside of party structures if that is the free choice of the people in the ground.

For more information

Bandile Mdlalose : Abahlali BaseMjondolo – 071 424 2815
Bheki Buthelezi : Unemployed Peoples Movement – 072 639 9893
China Ngubane : Democratic Left Front – 072 651 9790