2 March 2018
Abahlali baseMjondolo Press Statement

Abahlali baseMjondolo to hold Solidarity Meeting in Durban

Our movement will be hosting a solidarity meeting in Durban with comrades from other organisations from 9:30 am till 6:30 pm on Saturday. The organisations that will be part of this meeting include the Housing Assembly in Cape Town, Ubunye bamaHostela in Durban and Abahlali baseMjondolo branches in Gauteng. 

The main purpose of the meeting is to form a strong working alliance with comrades who are in the same struggle. We will also be discussing the land issue as it is suddenly on the national agenda these days. We note, as a starting point, that the ANC is now talking about expropriating land but since they came to power they have been repressing impoverished people who have occupied land. Our members have been assaulted, jailed, tortured and murdered by the ANC in the struggle for land. If this is not just more empty talk to get votes we have important questions about who land reform will benefit, what expropriated land will be used for, and how expropriated land will be managed.

The comrades from other organisations will visit two land occupations – the Marikana Land Occupation in Cato Crest and the eNkanini Land Occupation in Cato Manor. They will also join us in our monthly General Assembly, which will run from 10:00 am till 2:00 pm on Sunday, and see how Abahlali practice democracy from below. Our General Assembly is a space where our membership is able to discuss issues facing our branches and build solidarity between branches.

Twenty-four years after apartheid millions of our people remain without land and housing. We continue to face serious repression when we organise ourselves to occupy land and take our place in the cities. That repression includes brutal evictions. The so called democratic government today does exactly what the apartheid and colonial governments did in the past. We do not see that a democratic resolution of the land question is possible in rural or urban areas without a radical political project to build the democratic power of impoverished people from below.

Our movement will continue to encourage those who do not have land to occupy land, and to engage in grassroots urban planning and direct action to realise our right to the cities. This has been and will continue to be the expropriation of land from below. While the ANC led government is discussing the matter in Parliament we will continue to occupy and we will continue to struggle to hold the land that we have occupied.

While the politicians are busy being hypocrites in parliament the movement will continue to occupy and to hold land.

Occupy.

Resist.

Develop.

Thapelo Mohapi 062 892 5323
Thembelani Maqwazima 071 260 4119
George Bonono 073 067 3274