SAFTU condemns blackout and media bias against Abahlali baseMjondolo’s 20th Anniversary

SAFTU condemns blackout and media bias against Abahlali baseMjondolo’s 20th Anniversary

Date: 05 October 2025

The South African Federation of Trade Unions (SAFTU) condemns in the strongest terms both the blackout that marred Abahlali baseMjondolo’s 20th anniversary celebration on 04 October 2025 and the shameful silence of the mainstream media in covering this historic milestone.

For two decades, Abahlali baseMjondolo has been a beacon of poor people’s resistance: confronting evictions, corruption, land speculation, assassinations of activists, and the commodification of housing. Their anniversary was not just a celebration—it was a powerful reaffirmation of the struggle for dignity, justice, and democracy. The deliberate blackout and the absence of media coverage cannot be understood as technical errors; they are part of a systematic silencing of the poor majority.

A deliberate distortion of South Africa’s political landscape

This silence is not accidental. South African media has consistently chosen to underreport the struggles of workers, the unemployed, and shack dwellers, while amplifying the voices of the powerful, the property-owning class, and right-wing forces.

The result is a distorted image of South Africa as a country dominated by xenophobia and right-wing politics. Parties such as the PA, DA, and ActionSA, along with anti-migrant formations like Operation Dudula, are given disproportionate coverage. If Dudula had mobilised thousands yesterday—as Abahlali did peacefully—the mainstream media would have rushed to magnify their message of division. Instead, when shack dwellers and workers organise mass gatherings around dignity, land, and basic services, they are silenced.

This is a gross misrepresentation. The real culture of South Africa is progressive politics, daily mass demonstrations, and the seething anger of millions who are poor, unemployed, and marginalised. That reality is being blacked out because it challenges the narrative of elites.

The blackout extends to Palestine solidarity

This same bias is visible in coverage of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement. Despite widespread grassroots mobilisation against Israeli apartheid and genocide, the South African media frequently ignores these voices or buries them in footnotes. The SABC, our public broadcaster, routinely feels compelled to pair every condemnation of Israel’s genocide and apartheid with the voice of a genocide apologist, under the pretext of “impartiality.”

This is not impartiality. It is moral confusion of the highest order. No broadcaster has the right to be neutral when infants are being killed and starved. To treat genocide as a matter of “balance” is to betray the ethical responsibility of journalism and the democratic obligations of a public broadcaster.

SAFTU demands:

1. Accountability from media houses and the SABC for silencing grassroots voices while amplifying elites and right-wing forces.

2. Fair coverage of progressive movements, including Abahlali baseMjondolo, BDS, trade unions, and community organisations, who represent the actual majority.

3. An end to false equivalence: genocide, apartheid, and mass starvation are crimes against humanity—not subjects for “debate.”

4. Amplification of grassroots demands: land, housing, water, electricity, jobs, and dignity must be treated as central to South Africa’s democratic life.

SAFTU’s solidarity

SAFTU salutes Abahlali baseMjondolo for twenty years of struggle and sacrifice. We affirm that your voices will not be silenced by blackouts, assassinations, or media bias. The working class and the poor will continue to rise, and we will ensure that your demands are heard across this land.

The blackout of Abahlali’s celebration, the underreporting of daily protests, and the silencing of Palestine solidarity are not isolated events. They are symptoms of a deeper crisis: a democracy where the poor majority are systematically excluded from the national conversation. We reject this. We demand space for the voices of the oppressed—because without them, there is no democracy at all.

Issued by:
South African Federation of Trade Unions (SAFTU)