Three Years after the Attack on our Movement, the Kennedy Road Displacees Remain Homeless and in Exile

27 September 2012
Abahlali baseMjondolo press statement

Three Years after the Attack on our Movement, the Kennedy Road Displacees Remain Homeless and in Exile

The attack on Abahlali baseMjondolo in 2009 set a tone for KwaZulu-Natal to become the province where warlordism and the assassination of leaders and activists has become the order of the day. It was also a warning to the poor that we should accept landlessness, homelessness and all forms of injustices and inequality as the order of the day if we want to survive this democracy.

It was on the night of the 26th, 27th and 28th of September 2009 that the whole political plot was concluded and carried out to assassinate the leadership of Abahlali. We know and we want the nation and the whole world to know that this plot was planned at a very high political level in our province. The plot was not just aimed at reigniting the politic of fear and assassination among those of us who refuse to accept fear. It was also aimed at tearing apart our movement – a movement that has brought us together, a movement that has made us realise how much power and value we have when we stand together. A movement that has shown us how we were made poor by colonial rule, by apartheid and by the post-apartheid state. A movement that has insisted that democracy means that everyone has the same right to participate in decision making and that the land, cities and wealth of our country must be shared and managed equally.

After having lost everything we had, including our homes that we once owned, Willies Mchunu, a top politician in this province, said ‘’Kennedy Road has been liberated”. It seems that when the poor are without homes and without safety that makes some people rich people to feel good in this country. This province of KwaZulu-Natal is a good example of how the state believes it cannot be told anything by the poor. It is this city of Durban and provincial politicians that do not believe that Freedom Charter is right to insists that "the people shall govern". They cannot accept that the people shall govern from the shacks and from any poverty that we are subjected to.

Today is the 3rd year of our homelessness. We had humble homes but were made homeless by the ruling party. We continue save our life sentence in hell and we continue to ask the eThekwini municipality how long is our sentence?

The Kennedy Road Displacees will hold a picket at the Sydenham Police Station tomorrow, Friday 28 September from 18:00 – 19:00, to highlight the injustices of the state in this particular attack. We will not go quietly and we will not go away until the state takes responsibility for what happened. We will light candles and we will submit a memorandum to the Station Commissioner. We will not forget what was done to us three years ago. We will not forget the repression of movements around the country, all the people that have been tortured, all the people that have been murdered by the police on protests and the murders in Marikana.

For more information please contact:

Zandile Nsibande (displacee) on 074 767 7506
Sindy Mkhize (displaceee) on 073 730 6948
Bandile Mdlalose (Abahlali Secretary General) 071 424 2815