Abahlali baseMjondolo Back in Court Today

25 March 2025
Abahlali baseMjondolo Press Statement

Abahlali baseMjondolo Back in Court Today

The waves of attempts to evict us and destroy our occupations and communes via the courts continue.

On 14 March, the application by the KwaDukuza Municipality and the Dolphin Coast Residents and Ratepayers Association to forcibly remove poor black people from “prime land” along the KwaZulu-Natal North Coast was dismissed in the Pietermaritzburg High Court.

Today we are in the Mthatha High Court to contest an attempt at a mass eviction in Mount Ayliff in the Eastern Cape. The Umzimvubu Municipality has filed and served eviction papers against people who live on a piece of land close to this small town.

For decades, most shack settlements have been in the big cities where people seek better opportunities. However, with worsening impoverishment, hunger, and desperation, we now increasingly see people occupying land and building shacks in smaller municipalities. This is the result of the failure of government to enable viable forms of life for people in rural areas. In many rural municipalities, the main aim of the politicians and municipal officials is corruption. There is often no commitment to providing land, housing, services, and livelihoods for the people. When people occupy land in order to access better opportunities, municipal governments continue to respond by attempting to evict people.

The hypocrisy in the ANC continues. On one hand, they have signed the Expropriation Bill into law, and on the other, they continue to evict the poor in the cities. They talk about rural land reform in the abstract while violently repressing urban land reform from below.

We will also be defending the people of Hillary in the Durban High Court and the people of Shaka’s Head in the Pietermaritzburg High Court.

The struggle for the defence of the poor, carried out in our occupations and communes, on the streets, and in the courts, remains as we face attacks from all fronts.

Contact

Thapelo Mohapi 084 576 5117
Mqapheli Bonono 073 067 3274
Thandeka Thusini 076 647 9641