Friday, May 23, 2014
Abahlali baseMjondolo press statement
City-wide Summit on Land, Housing and Dignity
The politic of land, housing and dignity remain a huge crisis in our country.
We are seeing a lot of lands every day of our lives but each time we ask for a
land we are told there is no land.
Our city mayor calls himself a communist but we ask what kind of a communist
does not believe in an equal distribution of land in the city? We ask what
kind of a communist sends the notorious Land Invasion Unit to destroy the
shacks that we call home and drive us off the land we have occupied? The very
same politicians that tell us that the problem is that land remains in the
hands of the few mostly white farmers send the blue and the red ants to
illegally destroy our homes and drive us off the land we have occupied. These
same politicians are making us landless. If it wasn't for our movement,
thousands of us would have been made homeless, landless and destitute in our
own city, in our own country.
Our communist mayor supports these evictions. He supports the repression of
our struggles. He says nothing when we are killed, shot, beaten and jailed
defending a land occupation. It is clear that this government will not resolve
the land question from above. It is clear that it will have to be resolved by
struggle from below.
This weekend Abahlali will be deliberating on the question of land, housing
and dignity.
Our struggle is a land struggle before it is a housing struggle. We are clear
that there will be no landlord or messiah that will deliver land or have all
answers pertaining to land but ourselves. We are clear that it is sinister to
be landless and homeless in a country that has produced multi-millionaires in
this sector. We are clear that it is unreasonable to buy land that already
belongs to you. We are clear that state land is our own land. We have been
very clear that the social value of land must come before its commercial
value. We are clear that land occupations are a form of land reform carried
out from below. We are clear that without land and without decent housing our
dignity is compromised. We are clear that without dignity our citizenry and
humanity is at risk. We are clear that if we continuing to pretend as if
politicians will one day come up with one size fit all solution we will be
self-deceiving. And yes, we are clear that one day our children and our next
generation will put a blame on us if this question of land is not resolved
now. It is upon this reason that we thought we should take the bull by its
horns.
Twenty seven Abahlali branches are participating in the summit and will each
send five delegates. We will have speakers from our own movement. We will
also have speakers and participants from the Landless People's Movement-KZN.
We will have also have speakers from churches and an input from progressive
intellectuals. We will have serious discussions in commission with the hope
that the light of better understanding will give us strength to struggle more.
Venue: Surat Hindu Building Association (Denis Hurly Hall) Prince Edward
Street, Durban.
Time: 10:00a.m. – 17:00 p.m. Saturday, 24 May and 9:00 a.m. – 12:00, Sunday,
25 May 2014
Contact:
MaMkhize Nxumalo 078 4332719
T.J. Ngongoma 084 6139772
Zandile Nsibande 074 7675706
Attachments
ABM LAND SUMMIT