Unfreedom Day Rallies in Gauteng and Mpumalanga on 27 April

26 April 2025
Abahlali baseMjondolo press statement

Unfreedom Day Rallies in Gauteng and Mpumalanga on 27 April

Note: The Perdekop Police Have Tried to Ban the Mpumalanga Rally

For us to be free means that we have a right to express ourselves, to stand up for what we believe in without restraint or repression.

We are not free because we are denied access to good land, decent housing, and decent work.

We are not free because we are denied access to services like electricity, water and sanitation, and because institutions like public healthcare and schools are not ready to receive us with respect and care.

We are not free because we must travel far to access healthcare, education and work, and there is no safe affordable public transport. We are not free because women are not safe.

We are not free because people must leave their rural homes to come to the cities looking for work and education because there is nothing provided for people in the rural areas.

We are not free because farm dwellers are denied services because they live in private land. They also face brutal eviction from farmers.

We are not free because we are not welcomed to participate in all discussions and decision making affecting our lives. They discuss and conclude for us without us.

We are not free because parliament is full of sharks. We are not free because no political party represents the poor, including shack dwellers.

We are not free because we are not recognised by local government.

For the politicians we are just tools to be pulled out when elections come. They come and lie to us and then they disappear after the elections are over.

The elites, whether in politics, NGOs or elsewhere, like to pity us. They say that they are on our side for as long as they can pity us while we remain sad and silent. But when we insist on our right to think, speak and act for ourselves they say we are criminals; they treat us like criminals. When we build our power together, they come to undermine and repress us.

The government has contempt for us. This was shown, again, when they tried to increase VAT while most of us are not working, and millions of people are growing hungry. The politicians just think for themselves and their families; they do not think for the people.

The rich, often supported by the government, say that we cannot be allowed to live where we want and need to live because we are going to decrease the value of property prices. They work together to push us off good land and out of the cities. We are threatened with evictions all the time.

If our presence makes property prices fall, then it is clear that capitalism has no respect for us as human beings and that capitalism must fall. The social value of land must come before its commercial value.

All over the country we continue to face fires, and our comrades in Durban face regular floods.

How can we say that we are free when we are treated as criminals? How can we say that we are free when we are treated like we don’t mean anything, when our humanity is denied and vandalised?

We are not free because our dignity as human beings is not respected and protected. We are forgotten, looked down on and disrespected. We are treated as if we do not belong. We are not even given a chance.

We are not free when our brothers and sisters in Palestine, the Congo, Swaziland and elsewhere are not free.

We have nothing to celebrate on this so-called ‘Freedom Day’. We will come together to mourn the reality that we have been left out of this so-called freedom.

We insist that our dignity must be respected and that our voices must be heard. We call on all those who know that they are unfree to come running with us.

Unfreedom Day 2025 in Gauteng will be held on 27 April at the Mountain View Occupation in Braamfischer Phase 2 in Soweto. Along with the Gauteng branches comrades from elsewhere in the country will also be present. We will start at 9:00 a.m.

Unfreedom Day 2025 in Mpumalanga will be held in Perdekop on 27 April at the eNkanini 1 Occupation. All Mpumalanga branches will participate, along with comrades from elsewhere in the country.

The Station Commander at the Perdekop Police Station has told us that the police will not allow the rally to proceed as Cyril Ramaphosa will be speaking on the same day. Once again, the political police are acting on the instructions of politicians to repress the basic democratic rights of the organised poor. They have no legal basis to ban the rally, and we will proceed in defiance of the instruction from the police.

At both events we will send a strong message to the government and the whole country that we are not yet liberated.

They must know that we are not all afraid.

Contact:

Thapelo Mohapi 084 576 5117 (General Secretary)
Zanele Ngobese 073 946 2231 (Gauteng leadership)
Lesley Modikwa 076 172 9182 (Gauteng leadership)
Sandile Mofokeng 078 320 0796 (Mpumalanga leadership)