Upgrades v Evictions

Thursday, 29 September 2011
Berlin University, Germany

Upgrades v Evictions

I wish to thank Misereor and the Habitat Unit of Berlin University for inviting me to speak on 'Upgrading Urban Shack Settlements' at this meeting on people centered upgrading approaches. Abahlali baseMjondolo has a lot of experience on this important issue and I will do my best to share that experience with all of you here today.

Before I begin it is important for me, on behalf of Abahlali baseMjondolo, to thank Klaus Teschner and Misereor for their support when we were facing serious repression. One of the great weakness of our democracy is that the legal system is commodified. This is one reason why the state is often happy to force the struggles of the poor into the courts. It is very easy for the state and other elites to isolate the struggles of the poor by criminalising the struggles of the poor. If we enter the courts without good legal representation, which costs money, we are in a very dangerous situation. Misereor has enabled us to enter the courts with good legal representation and this has meant that we could get a fair hearing there. We also want to thank Klaus's comrade, Knut Unger, who has hosted our comrades here in Germany and has done so much to organise political support for our struggles, especially when we are facing repression.

I also wish to thank Abahlali baseMjondolo Movement SA, the movement I am part of, for trusting me with the responsibility to represent it here today. I have come here today with a mandate to participate in this important discussion. But I have also come here with a mandate to personally thank Knut Unger for his solidarity and to thank Klaus Teschner and Misereor for their support for the Socio-Economic Rights Institute that gave us legal support in the case of the Kennedy 12.

We imagine cities where politicians, policy makers, engineers and urban planners think with us and not for us. We imagine cities where the social value of land is put before its commercial value. We imagine cities where shack settlements are all offered the option of participatory upgrades and where people will only move elsewhere when that is their free choice. We imagine the quick improvement of local living conditions by the provision of water, electricity, paths, stairs and roads while housing is being discussed, planned and built. We imagine cities without evictions, without state violence being used to disconnect people from electricity and water and without any repression of organisations and movements. We imagine cities without the transit camps that have become the permanent alternative housing solution for many poor people since the declaration of the Millennium Development Goals by the United Nations. We reject, completely, the way in which the Millennium Development Goals have reduced the measure of progress to the numbers of 'housing opportunities delivered' when in fact progress should be measured in terms of people's dignity as this is understood by the people themselves. Transit camps are a disgrace, an insult. They are what happens when development is not participatory and people centred. We imagine cities where our children can access good education, where we can have good public health care centres, where there are parks, sports fields and libraries. We imagine cities where women can walk safely, even at night. We image cities where we can all have well paying jobs or a guaranteed income. Most importantly we imagine welcoming cities, cities where everyone counts the same and where everyone is treated with respect and dignity.

One of the reasons why we are failing to make these imaginings a reality is that most of the people with power think that the solution is for them to retain all the power to themselves and then, one day in the future, they will be able to deliver dignity to the people. In fact you have to start by recognising the dignity of the people, and then work with the people if you want to end with cities that respect that dignity. Dignity is not something that can ever be delivered by the people at the top of society to the people at the bottom of society.

In the 1970s and 80s millions of poor black people were able to occupy a place in the cities. This created a crisis for apartheid because they were out of place to apartheid. But the ANC promised to recognise their right to the cities. Some people even said that the shack dwellers were 'the urban spearhead of the revolution'. We insist that these land occupations, this taking of a place in the cities, is seen as political, as part of the struggle. All the work to keep these settlements going, a lot of it women's work, must be seen as political. The work that has gone into all these land occupations and the creation of communities must be recognised.

But when the ANC took power they stopped seeing the popular occupation of the cities as political. They started to see the shack settlements as a problem. People found that, again, they were considered to be out of place. The ANC began to evict people either leaving them homeless or taking them to human dumping grounds. Mnikelo Ndabankulu calls this reruralisation.

When Abahlali began to resist evictions it created a crisis. But when we began to take our place in the in the discussions and political life in our cities that also created a crisis. It created a crisis because we as shack dwellers should have known our place. We should not live or think or speak or act outside that place.

Abahlali’s refusal to be confined in the dark corners of our shacks did not only create a crisis for the state. It also created a crisis for some civil society organizations, regressive lefts and some few university trained intellectuals who believe that its their duty to think, act, represent and decide for the poor while we suffer in obedient and grateful silence. If we are serious about really trying to find a way to replace forced evictions with human centered participatory upgrades we have to take this reality very seriously. The repression of the poor does not only come from the state.

Abahlali's experience tells us that one of the main factors hindering a move to people centered upgrading is the political unwillingness of the authorities to take upgrades seriously. They talk about upgrades but this talk never becomes action.

There is an incompetence of those empowered to serve the public. This is often caused by cadre deployment. In February this year, 2011, some of the South African provinces, including KwaZulu-Natal where I come from, had to return almost R200 millions from the provincial housing budget that had gone unspent to the National Treasury while millions of people are living in shacks. So, clearly, the failures of the government are not always a question of budget constraints or the legacy of apartheid which are the excuses that are used when politicians and officials fail to perform their duties in governance. Abahlali raised concerns over the return of that money for housing and even wrote a letter to the national Minister of Human Settlements to help him understand this failure. Nut his office has since been beating about bushes and has never met with us.

The upgrading of shack settlements also fails because of the very high corruption in governance in our country. Housing has become a way for people in the ruling party to become millionaires. But this corruption is not just about money. It is also about political control. It is about the ruling party keeping a monopoly of power. Public services such as housing have become highly politicised from the top to the bottom with the result that Abahlali members are excluded because of our political activism.

Everyone can see that in South Africa apartheid planning patterns and spatial development that promote class segregation continue. For as long as the commercial value of land is made to come before its social value this problem will persist. Government has to take responsibility for its failure to think about land ownership and use democratically.

Government also has to take responsibility for the politicians that profit from developments that are based on land being something that is bought and sold rather than something that is used to meet the needs of the people. Government also has to take responsibility for those politicians that do not want poor people in cities and are happier for us to be dumped far from the cities. But the problem here is not only with government. It is also with many other forces in society including rich people who speak like they are victims when poor people live near to them. The media often support this view.

To overcome this failure we should not pretend as if these failures are only caused by technical difficulties when in fact they are deeply political. There can be no solution that is based on improving policies when policies are ignored from the top to the bottom and the development that does happen is corrupted from the top to the bottom. There can be no solution that is based on any technocratic development strategy when the politicians take every project and bend it to their own interests and when no one is willing to put people before profit.

The root cause of the failure to move from evictions to upgrades is not in the laws or the policies. It is not in a lack of capacity in the state. It is not in a lack of understanding by the state and other development professionals. The root cause of this failure lies in the fact that the poor lack power in South Africa. This is why other people are always talking for us and deciding for us. This is why the interests of politicians or other rich people always come before our interests.

There will be no progress without the political empowerment of the poor. That is why Abahlali baseMjondolo Movement SA, the Western Cape Anti Eviction Campaign, the Landless People's Movement, the Rural Network, the Unemployed People's Movement and the Anti-Privatisation Forum are organizing the unorganized, the unemployed and the shack dwellers, to build our own power and to work with the university trained experts on these important questions on the basis of equality. We are working to build the power of the poor from below so that we can actively contribute in building our cities and our world from below. Without these efforts of mobilizing and empowering the community organisations and movements there will be no success. We cannot achieve what is meant to be ours without our involvement. Relying on experts when they don't have any political support and backing will not take us anywhere. No experts can contest the power of the politicians and the rich on their own. If experts want to make real change they need to locate themselves inside the struggles of the poor.

Under these circumstances we see the role of the German development cooperation sector, churches, progressive NGOs, urban planners and experts being to support democratic formations such as poor people’s movements and community organisations struggling for social justice in our society. Your most important role is to be in solidarity with our efforts to mobilise and empower our communities. In doing so, do not think for us, but think with us. Do not decide for us, decide with us. Avail yourselves. Render your professional services and skills. Avail resources for campaigns and awareness that can be shared equally amongst all the movements. Transfer skills in a manner that is empowering in the process. Above all gather your strength and raise your voices in defence of our right to organise. Stand with us when we are under attack. Some German activists, organisations and churches are already doing this. Misereor is already doing it in building the capacity of the poor not for, but with Abahlali baseMjondolo Movement SA, a movement of the poor, by the poor and for the poor. The poor should be able to be proud of deciding their own future and to be a living part of the great society that we all imagine.

We believe that this is a great conversation and that we should be able to continue to have it in our countries without fear of losing our jobs and facing repression. These conversations must be taken very seriously because they have to do with people's dignity, with the equal value of every human life that must not be compromised whatever the circumstances are. When we are thinking about just and democratic cities, about upgrades rather than evictions, we must start and end with the equal dignity of all people.

Aluta continua!

I thank you all.

S'bu Zikode