Democratisation of the built environment

S’bu Zikode’s speech at the Built Environment Climate Change Indaba earlier today

1 September 2023

Democratisation of the built environment

Programmer director, Minister Khuzeni, MEC Nkosi, Mayor of eThekwini, Cllr Kaunda, President of SALGA, Mama Mtshali, CEO of CBE, academia, officials and civil society formations, Abahlali baseMjondolo delegates, ladies and gentlemen. I wish to thank CBE for inviting Abahlali to participate in this important discussion on the built environment and climate change.
In most cases impoverished communities are not invited to participate in spaces that discuss their future and we welcome this invitation to contribute to this meeting. The built environment itself, and the planning processes that shape the built environment, must be democratised. There is the same urgency to democratise planning and action around climate change.

The power to allocate land, and to plan for land use, cannot only be exercised by the state and the rich. Democracy has to mean more than just voting every few years. It has to mean day to day participation in decision making and democratic self-management. Yes, impoverished communities needs to be educated on some matters by the various kinds of experts that shape our built environment and strategies around climate change. But these experts should also allow themselves to be educated by impoverished communities.

Everybody wants to live in safe, beautiful cities organised for human flourishing. But it is the poor who are living in the worst conditions and need the most urgent support to improve their living conditions. It is also the poor who suffer the most from dangerous weather, such as floods and high winds. The climate crisis will affect the poor the most. Denying the people who are most at risk from climate change the right to participate in discussions and planning is unjust.

These questions cannot be discussed without discussing the wider context of oppression, including impoverishment, denial of access to land and decent housing, mass unemployment, terrifying levels of violence and brutal forms of political repression. The question of dignity is paramount. Any credible process of engaging these questions must start from a recognition of the dignity of the oppressed, develop a process for a way forward that respects our dignity and aim at solutions that do the same.

This indaba must confront the question of land, including urban land. The majority of the land remains in the hands of a minority, and the ongoing commodification of land means that it remains forever out of the reach of the poor. There can be no justice until land is allocated and its use and management determined on the basis of social need rather than private profit.
The government needs to support the land reform being undertaken from below, by the people themselves, and to urgently engage in a programme of rapid land release for the landless majority of this country. This land should not be commodified and should be collectively owned and managed. Rapid release of land will mean that there is no longer a need for land occupations in our urban centres. In some cases people have, due to desperation, occupied land in extremely dangerous spaces such as river banks or floods plains. This would not happen if people had access to land well suits to form communities.

If the use of the land can be democratically planned on the basis of social need rather than private profit it can be used to build thriving, productive communities who are not forced to live in dangerously overcrowded conditions. It can put an end to the shack fires that haunt the dreams of our children and often result in the loss of lives.

Just last Sunday five babies were burnt beyond recognition during a shack fire in the Itireleng settlement in Pretoria. Just yesterday another terrible fire broke out in Johannesburg CBD leaving over 70 killed. This is deeply disturbing and unfair. An urgent solution needs to be found. When the majority of this country remain landless then land occupations are the only mechanism to people’s-built environment from below.

We need to be very clear that in the absence of land reform from above people have had no choice but to undertake land reform from below. In some cases this has resulted in well planning and democratically managed communities. But all land occupations face intense and illegal violence from all kinds of security agencies are deployed to unleash violence on people. When it is insisted that occupied land must not be commodified and must be managed by democratic processes there has also been serious violence, including assassinations carried out by the izinkabi.

In the minds of the elites access to land, a question of justice, becomes the question of law and order. The poor are criminalised.

We live in the country where the right to housing is constitutionally recognised, but where there is no right to land. We live in a country where the state is unable to build housing for all the poor, but where those who build modest homes for themselves are repeatedly destroyed with violence. In some cases, the same people have been evicted more than 30 times without regard for what national legislation provides. Some municipalities, like eThekwini, have been ignoring court orders. Shack dwellers have been treated as if they are beneath the law. Lies are put before the truth, promises made are broken, profit is put before people’s need and the commercial value of land continues to be placed before its social value.

Responding to climate change will require real change in governance, real change in how people on the ground are treated, real change on how land is allocated and managed, real change in the legislations and a real commitment to put people and the earth before profit. Recently the eKhenana Commune, which is affiliated to our movement, was celebrated as a model of sustainably development in an international publication. It has an organic garden and solar power along with all kinds of other achievements. Yet three of the comrades there were assassinated last year, and there has been all kinds of repression and violence, including numerous illegal evictions. There is something seriously wrong with our country when innovation from below is met with violence from the state and the izinkabi.

Planning also needs to be democratised. Over the years we have seen many studies that are biased to the middle class and rich.

In terms of our own role in the struggle to stop the vandalization of the earth by capitalism we work with progressive organisations across Africa and around the world to try and build a global movement of anti-capitalist movements with the goal of putting both people and the earth before profit. We have to clearly understand that it is capitalism that is destroying the earth and that there can be no real solution to the climate crisis under capitalism.

However, of course we do support all attempts at making any kind of progress in defence of our earth, including regulations that force reductions in carbon emissions. For instance we welcome attempts to ensure that all new public housing has solar geysers. Projects like this should be further expanded.

We have been able to work with progressive environmental organisations like groundWork, who worked with us to install solar power in the eKhenana Commune. This is an initiative that should be expanded across all shack settlements.

Programme director our submissions in this indaba are as follows:

There must be a rapid release of land for housing and community farming, and an end to evictions.

There must be provision of serviced sites where government is unable to build housing for the people so that those who can afford to build for themselves can actually do so.

The social value of land must come before its commercial value.

Communities must be supported to build democratically managed and productive communes.
Information on climate change must be made available to people in their own local languages and social movements like Abahlali be able to use it in their popular education programmes.

There must be a serious and democratic dialogue on developing and managing the built environment and climate change in each city and province and nationally. This must include all membership-based grassroots formations to pave the way towards an inclusive future for South Africa.

All experts employed or contracted by the state and NGOs to develop policies and practices around the built environment and climate change must engage poor people with respect. All planning must be participatory. No kind of development should be imposed on people without their consent.

There must be a serious programme of job creation.

There must a serious programme of support for young people struggling with addiction, including the building of caring rehab centres in working class and poor communities.

There must be an ongoing massive national campaign against violence against women, including strong support for survivors.

There must be a massive campaign against xenophobia and a collective project to build solidarity among all our people, without regard to where they were born.

Corruption is a serious problem in our country and the state must incentives and protect whistle blowers to encourage them in the fight against corruption and act decisively against people shown to have been guilty of corruption.

Today we ask you to work with us as we work towards a world in which each person count as a person, a world in which the dignity of every human being is respected, a world in which our cities are built and run to support human flourishing.

I thank you.