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.

Tomorrow Abahlali in KwaZulu Natal will be gathering at the Surat Hindu Hall in Durban to remember and honour all our fallen heroes. Families of all our fallen heroes are invited. Our Secretary General Nomsa Sizani who lost a nephew, Samuel Hloele, who was senselessly guned down by the Anti land invasion unit during an occupation in Ekukhanyeni will be giving us this year’s Thuli Ndlovu Annual Memorial Lecture.

Thuli Ndlovu was an Abahlali activist, an Abahlali Branch Chairperson and member of the Abahlali National Council who was assassinated by ANC councillors Christian “Nqola”Mduduzi Ngcobo, Luvelile Lutsheku and Ndlovu (hitman).

Nomsa will be raising difficult questions like how Thuli Ndlovu and Nkululeko Gwala, an Abahlali leader who was assassinated in Cato Crest in 2013, would reflect on the current socio economic situation in our country given the level of state violence and other social ills. The lecture is aimed at honouring these heroes and their families.

We will start the day by placing flowers on the grave of Thuli Ndlovu to honour to her. This will be followed by the lecture by Nomsa. We will then celebrate our diverse cultures and strengthen our unity and solidarity.

We will use this day to denounce all forms of violence against migrant communities and violence against women and, also, children. It is time to build unity amongst the poor and working class. Our unity as oppressed people is our strongest weapon against oppression. All those who try to divide us are our enemies.

Nqobile Nzuza, Thuli Ndlovu, Nkululeko Gwala, Sibonelo Mpeku and other leaders who have fallen in the struggle for land and dignity are just statistics to our government, but to us they are our heroes who have fought a good fight. We will also honour them and give them the respect that this government fails to give

Contact:

Nomsa Sizani: 081 005 3686
Mqapheli Bonono: 073 067 3274