http://akkrise.wordpress.com/2012/08/19/upm-statement-18-8-2012/

UPM-Statement, 18 August 2012, Ayanda Kota, 078 825 6462

Das Massaker an den Minenarbeitern von Marikana – eine massive Eskalation des Kriegs gegen die Armen

Zwei Tage sind nun vergangen seit dem brutalen, herzlosen und erbarmungslosen kalten Blutbad an 45 Minenarbeitern in Marikana durch die südafrikanische Polizei. Das war ein Massaker!

Südafrika ist das am meisten ungleiche Land der Welt. Das Ausmaß an Armut ist maßlos. In jeder township gibt es Baracken ohne Sanitäranlagen und Strom. Die Arbeitslosigkeit liegt bei rund 40%. Die ökonomische Ungleichheit wird begleitet von politischer Ungleichheit. Überall sehen sich AktivistInnen ernsthafter Unterdrückung durch die Polizei und lokale Parteistrukturen ausgesetzt.

Ayanda Kota

Ayanda Kota was born in Grahamstown in the Eastern Cape in February 1976 – the year of the national youth insurrection that began in Soweto. He joined the Black Consciousness Movement at the age of 15 years. Militants in the movement made a serious study of works by revolutionary thinkers like Steven Biko, Frantz Fanon, Paulo Freire, Vladimir Lenin, Leon Trotsky and Mao Zedong. In 1990 he was elected as a Class Representative and in 1995 he was elected as the Azanian Student Movement Chairperson in Cape Town. In the same year he was arrested and detained in the Cape Town police station for his role in Employ Black Teachers Campaign. The following year he was elected as the Azanian Students Movement National Political Education Secretary in Kimberly. In 2001 he was re-elected to the position of Political Education Secretary at a meeting at the University of the Western Cape in Cape Town. In 2003 he was elected as the Black Consciousness Youth of Azania National Secretary for Publicity and Information in Durban at a meeting at the Steve Biko campus of the Durban University of Technology.

http://rhodespsf.org/2012/06/11/ayanda-kota-of-upm-condemns-safa-on-their-silence-on-mahmoud-sarsak-struggle/

Soccer an Expression of Love and Hope

by Ayanda Kota

The President’s Address to the Makana Local Football Association, Zondani Townhall, Grahamstown, Saturday 9 June 2012

James Kiawoin a Liberian first-year student at Colorado College recently wrote:

George Weah and his colleagues represented hope for Liberia during the peak of the civil war and bragging rights for Liberians whose identities were pegged with the brutal scenes relayed on the international media. Despite the financial hardship that plagued the nation, Liberians would flood the national stadium to watch their team play and many people were glued to their radios on the weekends to join in the spectacle that occurred in Monrovia. After every match, the city would not sleep because people would be up all nights in bars celebrating the unending victories. There were countless songs and T-shirts made to celebrate the team’s heroic performances and every Liberian (no exaggeration) knew the structure of the team. The team made it possible for Liberians to put aside their differences for ninety minutes and proclaim the greatness of their nation. The players received grand welcomes every time they came for international duties or won an away game.

Comments at the Memorial Service for the Late Comrade Mawande Jack

by Ayanda Kota

Mawande Jack was a lifelong Pan-Africanist. He never abandoned his ideals. And he never looked anywhere else other than the struggles of the people, the struggles of the poor, to realise his ideals.

He was a journalist. The media is one of the most important fields in the battle of ideas. Mawande was always willing to take a position in the media. He fought many battles in the newsrooms. He was always willing to work with poor people's movements and struggles and he was always willing to fight to give them space in the media. He worked for The Herald and was dismissed because of his political commitments. He then joined The New Age and had to resign due to the political pressure he confronted at work. This is the price that many of our comrades have paid for their activism.